totmarg 

of 

fttrutitan JIUtIj0trtsm 



WESLEYAN METHODISM IN IRELAND. 



EIGHTH 
A Journal of the Present, and Herald of the Future. 

A MOKTHLY BROADSHEET OF 

REVIVAL AND OTHER INTELLIGENCE, 

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 
EDITED BY 

THE EE V. WILLIAM CROOK. 

The character arid aim of "The Irish Evangelist" will be 
suffix :~tly indicated by the following general outline of its 

Contents : 



1. Biographical Sketches of Irish 

Weslej^an Ministers — Biographi- 
cal Sketches of Eminent Irish- 
men—Memorials of our Depart- 
ed Members. 

2. Historical: Outlines of Irish 

Ecclesiastical History — Studies 
in Church History— Irish Anti- 
quities—Sketches of Methodism 
in Ireland in former days. 

3. Expository: Brief Expositions 

of Important Passages of Scrip- 
ture. 

4. Devotional Papers, bearing on 

the culture and discipline of the 
heart. 



5. Literary: Brief Reviews and 

Notices of Current Literature. 

6. Evangelistic : Papers on Street 

Preaching — Home Missions- 
Bible Chisses — Sunday Schools 
— Class Meetings, &c. 

7. Revival and General Wesleyan 

Intelligence. 

8. Young Men: Papers on Mental 

Improvement — Books, Reading, 
&c. 

9. Poetry: Original and Select. 

10. Monthly Summary of News — 
Occasional Papers on Astro- 
nomy, Natural History, &c. 



®i§° As this Journal is extensively circulated in all the principal 
Towns and Villages in Ireland, and has many Subscribers in 
England and Scotland, and is also registered for Foreign Trans- 
mission, it is a first-class medium of Advertisements for Books, 
Schools, and general Public Business. 



PEICE TWOPENCE. 



Dublin : "Irish Evangelist Publishing Company," 
(Limited), Lower Abbey Steet ; Richakd Yoakley, 72, 
Grafton Street. London : Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row. 

Published on the First of every Month, and sold at all our 
Churches and Preaching Places in Ireland. 

A Single Copy sent for a Year to any address in the 
United Kingdom, on receipt of Three Shillings in Stamps ; or 
Five Copies to one address for Ten Shillings. Address to Mr. 
William Wallace, Office of "The Irish Evangelist," 8, Lower 
Abbey Street, Dublin. 



1 X 



Centmarg 

of 




Ruins of Embury's House at Ballingran, County Limerick (from the 
field looking towards the Entrance-gate.) Offices on the right. — 
See pp. 77-78. . _ 

1866. 



Cmtmarg of American Jletijootsm 



CHAPTERS ON THE PALATINES ; PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK ; 
AND OTHER IRISH EMIGRANTS, 

WHO INSTRUMENTALITY LAID THE FOUNDATION OF 

THE METHODIST CHURCH 

CANADA, AND EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 



THE EEV. WILLIAM CEOOK, 

Author of " Memorials of the late Rev. William Crook. " 



"Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well : whose branches 
run over the wall : the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated 
him : but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong 
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." — Genesis xlix. 22-24. 



LONDON : 

HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW ; 
WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE ; ELLIOT STOCK, PATERNOSTER ROW. 

DUBLIN : 

RICHARD YOAKLEY, 72, GRAFTON STREET. 

1866. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 



WASHINGTON 




" When we consider the peculiar difficulties of their field of labour, the 
poverty of their societies, the formidable barbai'ism which Popery has im- 
posed upon the Celtic population, the popular tumults and rebellion, the 
wretched accommodation of the itinerants, and the continual drain upon 
their congregations by foreign emigration, and yet their persistent labour 
and success, it may indeed be doubted whether the energy of Irish 
Methodism has had a parallel in the history of the denomination. And its 
blessings, not only to America, but to the Wesleyan Foreign Missions, and 
to England itself, in the gift of many eminent preachers, entitle it to the 
grateful admiration of the whole Methodist world." — Dr. Stevens's History 
of Methodism, iii. p. 426. 



TO THE 

REV. ROBINSON SCOTT, D.D., 

THE FIRST DEPUTATION FROM THE IRISH CONFERENCE 

TO THE 
OF 

%ty QEmteb States of tortca : 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 



MARCUS WARD AND CO., PRINTERS, 
BELFAST AND DUBLIN. 



€ a it 1 1 n t s . 



PAGE 

$nfm • xiii 



CHAPTER I. 

||alafims in Jfolsmb, • . . 17 

Palatinate of the Rhine —Position— Name blotted from 
modern maps — Persecutions of the Palatines by the 
Romanists — Turenne and Louis XIV. — Burning of 
Towns and Villages — Flight of the Palatines to the Camp 
of Marlborough— Religious character of the Palatines 
when in Germany— Arrival of 7,000 in England — En- 
camped at Camberwell and Blackheath Commons — Emi- 
gration of 3,000 to America — Settlement of remainder 
in Ireland, principally on Lord Southwell's Estate, 
County Limerick— Names of those who thus settled in 
1709 — Rev. John "Wesley on their Emigration — Testi- 
monies as to the character of the Palatines and services 
in Ireland — Influence of Romanism and Protestantism 
on Irish character. 



CHAPTER II. 

#npn mttr Ingres s 0f llWjwtrism 
amongst % ^ala&ws, . . .35 

Character and Appearance of the Palatine Villages — 
Ballingran— Character of the Palatines prior to the in- 
troduction of Methodism — Mr. Wesley's Testimony — 
Some honourable exceptions— Philip Guier — Introduc- 
tion of Methodism into Limerick by Robert Swindells 



Vll 



CONTENTS. 



— His Bravery in Preaching on the King's Parade, 
March 17, 1749 — " Swaddlers " — Mrs. Bennis, of 
Limerick — Thomas Walsh the ultimate fruit of Swin- 
dells's Sermon on the Street — Walsh's Character and 
Value as a Man and a Minister — Swindells and the 
first Methodist Class in Limerick — Mother of the Eev. 
William Myles — Thomas Williams — His Popularity, 
Calvinism, and Fall — Origin of Methodism amongst 
the Palatines — First Class at Newmarket — Wesley's first 
"Visit to them — Walsh commences to Preach amongst 
the Palatines — Cownley and other Labourers — Wesley's 
second Visit to Limerick — First Irish Conference — 
Wesley and Calvinism — Philip Guier and five others re- 
ceived on Trial as Preachers — Wesley's first Visit to 
Ballingran in 1756 — Thomas Walsh Preaching in Irish 
— Wesley's seventh Visit to Ireland — Irish Conference 
of 1758 — Philip Embury and William Thompson re- 
ceived on Trial — Illness of Walsh — His Death, and Men- 
tal Suffering explained — Important Document, respect- 
ing Walsh's last Illness, from the Rev. John Dinnen — 
Charles Wesley's Lines on his Death — Wesley's further 
Visits to the Palatines — Death of Philip Guier — Wes- 
ley's last Visit — Great Revival amongst them — Rev. 
Mr. Ingram, of Limerick — Wesley's Final Testimony 
as to the Character of the Irish Conference in 1789 — His 
interest in Ireland, and in the Palatines, and his re- 
markable prediction concerning Ireland, and its fulfil- 
ment. 

CHAPTER III. 

^{rilip (ffmbmg ratr |$tn>. J^uh at §allm- 
Qtun, 71 

Embury and his Party leaving for America — Parting Scene 
a Hundred and Six Years ago — Ballingran — Methodist 
Church — Ruins of Embury's House — Mrs. Heck's House, 
and old Mrs. Ruckle — Embury's Birth — Education — 
Apprenticed to a Carpenter — Conversion — Appointed 
a Leader and Local Preacher — His Services in Connec- 



CONTENTS. 



ix 



tion with the Building of the Church at Court-Matrix 
— Wesley Preaching at Ballingran in 1756 — Conference 
at Limerick in 1758 — Embury and William Thompson 
recommended for our Itinerancy — Character of Thomp- 
son — Embury's Marriage in November, 1758 — Paul Heck 
and Barbara his Wife — Emigration of Embury, Paul and 
Barbara Heck, and Others, to New York in 1760. 

CHAPTER IV. 

(Emfotrjr anir gto, JptcL ©right 

Probable Causes of Embury's Silence for Six Years in New 
York — Worshipped with the Lutherans — Death of two 
of his Children — Arrival of Second Party of Irish Pala- 
tines in 1765 — Mrs. Heck and the Card-players — Proof 
that Embury was not present — Full Refutation of this 
Slander — Embury's First Sermon and the Origin of 
Methodism in America — His own Hired House — Remo- 
val of the little Church to the " Upper Room " in Bar- 
rack Street — Early Members of the Church — Removal 
to the "Rigging Loft" in 1767 — Arrival of Charles 
White and Richard Sause from Dublin — Captain Webb, 
his Preaching and Success. 

CHAPTER Y. 

dDrafrle of %mmtm Pj>%trism/' . 101 

Important Letter from " T. T." (Thomas Taylor) to 
Wesley — value of this Letter in fixing the Date of 
Embury's Emigration, and the Origin of Methodism in 
New York — Lease of John Street Property, and Trustees 
— Embury the First Trustee and First Treasurer of 
the Chapel Fund — Irish Contributions to the Enterprise 
— Mrs. Heck the Architect of the Church— Embury's 
Opening Sermon, in October, 1768 — Destruction of 
the " Rigging Loft," in 1854. 



X 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

|^{ri% (ffmktrg atttr |ftrs, JSwrk at (fam- 
trm: g^at^ nf ^mtrarg, . .117' 

Arrival of Thomas Ashton and Robert "Williams from 
Ireland — Williams the First Itinerant in America, and 
the Spiritual Father of Jesse Lee — Ashton and his 
Colony at Ashgro ve— Rev. Abraham Bininger — Arrival 
of Boardman and Pilmoor — Embury, Paul, and Mrs. 
Heck remove to Camden — Embury forms a Class at Ash- 
grove — Becomes a Magistrate — His Death in 1773 — 
Catherine Lowe — Death of Two of his Children — Mrs. 
Embury, Paul and Barbara Heck remove to Canada 
— Ashton and Cemetery at Ashgro ve — Removal of Em- 
bury's Remains to Ashgrove in 1832 — Oration on the 
occasion by John Newland Maffitt — His Tomb. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Jihwranf, 133 

Disposition on the Part of Methodist "Writers in America 
to do full justice to Irish Methodism — Mistake of Wake- 
ley and Dr. Stevens as to Robert "Williams — He was not 
a " Lay Evangelist," but a Member of the Irish Con- 
ference — Came to America with Ashton — "Was in 
Charge and issued Tickets before the arrival of Board- 
man and Pilmoor — His Character and great Services — 
Germ of "The Book Concern" — His Enduring Memorial. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ifeglanfr, . . • • .147 

Description of Strawbridge's Birthplace at Drumsna, 
county Leitrim — Wesley's visit to Drumsna — Mob in 
Carrick-on-Shannon in 1760 — Strawbridge's Persecution 
and Removal to Sligo — Preaches in Kilmore, county 
Cavan — Removes to Tandragee — Marriage — Traces of 



CONTENTS. Xi 

S PAGK 

the Strawbridge family at Drumsna— Annaduff— Emi- 
grates to Maryland, about 1766— The "Log Meeting- 
House" — Probable Date when he commenced his Labours 
in America — Traces of his Family — His Labours and 
Poverty, and great Success — His Death and Funeral — 
Asbury's antipathy to him— Defence of Strawbridge, 
and Obligations of American Methodism to him. 

CHAPTER IX. 

|iic|rarjtr §0arbman, . . • -1^1 

Leeds Conference of 1769, and Appointment of Boardman 
and Pilmoor— Conversion of Mary Redfern — Perilous 
Passage to America — Boardman's Services in America — 
Returned Home in 1774— Appointed to Londonderry — 
His Services in Ireland — Death in Cork in 1782 — His 
Tomb at St. Fin Barre's. 

CHAPTER X. 

! wlattir mtb % @xi%m oi llWjrobism in 
Canaim, .... 187 

Methodism in Canada, as in the United States, the Child 
of Irish Methodism— First Class in Canada, and Mrs. 
Embury, Paul and Barbara Heck — George Neal, his Cha- 
racter and Services — James M'Carty, his Character and 
Martyrdom — Fate of his Persecutors — William Losee — 
First Methodist Chapel in Adolphustown in 17^2, and 
Irish names as Subscribers — Death of Paul and Barbara 
Heck — Families of Embury and Heck, and Canadian 
Methodism—" The Old Blue Church, Augusta," and the 
Grave of Paul and Barbara Heck— Canadian Methodism, 
and Emigration from Ireland — Methodism in Canada in 
1866. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Jfwlmtb anb % #rigm of litdljobtsm in 
(fetenx §ritislj %nxmtn t . . 209 

Extent of Eastern British America — Methodism there, as in 
the United States and Canada, the Child of Irish Metho- 



Xii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

dism — Laurence Coughlan — His Character — Letters to 
"Wesley — Commenced his Labours in 1765 — Letter from 
Newfoundland to Wesley — His Labours, Persecution and 
Triumphs — Moral State of Newfoundland — Conversion of 
Arthur Thomey — John Stretton of Waterford — His Con- 
version and Emigration to Newfoundland — Mrs. Bennis, 
of Limerick — First Methodist Chapel in Eastern British 
America, Built and Opened by Stretton, at Harbour Grace 
— HisCharacter and Labours — Return of Coughlan to Eng- 
land, and his sudden Death — Origin of Methodism in 
the Channel Islands, and in France — Labours of Stretton 
and Thomey — Arrival of Hoskins — Stretton applies to 
"Wesley for a Preacher — Wesley's Letter to him — Ap- 
pointment of John M 'Geary, in 1785 — Progress of the 
Cause— Rev. John Remmington— Samuel Ellis and Samuel 
M'Dowell — Rev. George Cubitt and Captain Tickers — 
Present State of Methodism in Eastern British America. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Jf ttkntr aittr %mmzK, .... 235 

Concluding Chapter — Irish Methodism, its peculiar Diffi- 
culties and Success — Ireland's Political troubles — The 
hand of God in Emigration — Dr. M'Clintock's visit to his 
family homestead in Tyrone — English and American 
sympathy with Ireland during the Famine — Ireland's 
sympathy with America during the rebellion of the slave 
power — Bishop Janes' Speech on the Debt of American 
Methodism to Ireland — Success of the Irish General 
Mission in dealing with Popery — Discontinued for want 
of Funds — Present danger of English and American 
Protestantism from Irish Popery — Dr. Wylie's remarks 
on Ireland as a source of strength to the Papacy — Dr. 
Manning on the Triumphs and Progress of Popery in 
Great Britain — Dr. Brownlee on Popery in the United 
States — Practical suggestions — Special efforts for the 
Conversion of Irish Romanists in England and America 
— Irish Methodism and want of Capital — Great Liberality 
of Irish Methodism — What it might do if adequately 
supported. 

• • • • -258 



PREFACE. 



XV 



whole lias been rewritten throughout, incorporat- 
ing any new information that the researches of the 
last two or three years have brought to light. I 
went both to Ballingran and Drums na, so as to 
secure the most recent and reliable information 
about Embury and Strawbridge, and have spared 
no labour to make the book as accurate as possible. 
On a careful revision of these sheets, before send- 
ing them out into the world, I do not know a 
single date or fact on which I have any remark to 
offer. 

I have read every book on the subject by our 
brethren in America on which I could lay my hand, 
and have made free use of them. More than ordi- 
nary acknowledgments are due to the able and 
accomplished historian of the Church, the Rev. 
Dr. Stevens, and to the Eev. J. B. Wakeley. 

Of course, the principal facts embraced in this 
book must be already familiar to those on both 
sides of the Atlantic who have thoroughly studied 
the subject, and for them it is not written. 
I aim at presenting, principally, to our rising 
young people, a brief, popular sketch of the 
honoured place to which Irish Methodism is en- 
titled in the approaching Centenary of American 
Methodism. 



XVI 



PREFACE. 



It will be seen that of Irish Methodism, past 
and present, I am not ashamed ; but that on the 
contrary, I believe that it will be loved, and prized, 
and honoured, precisely in proportion as its his- 
tory, difficulties, and triumphs are known. Some 
in England and America, who may, perchance, 
honour these pages with a perusal, may deem me 
enthusiastic. Be it so. Perhaps, if they under- 
stood Irish Methodism as well as I do, they would 
think me somewhat tame. 

Perhaps I should add that this book must 
plead my apology for the non-appearance of some 
tracts on the Plymouth Controversy, which I gave 
the public reason to expect some months since, 
and for which many enquiries have been made. 
I am not insensible to these enquiries, and hope 
fully to redeem my pledge ere long. 

The entire of this book, including the plates, 
was brought out by Messrs. Marcus Ward & Co., 
of Belfast. I wish that I had reason to believe 
that my share of the work was as well done. 

I commend this Book to the friends of Irish 
Methodism everywhere, and to the blessing of 
Almighty God. 

WILLIAM CEOOK. 

Sligo, August 31st, 1866. 



preface 



TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



FORMER edition of two thousand copies of 



this book was disposed of within a few weeks, 
and I have now the gratification of issuing a third 
thousand, identical with the former edition, with the 
exception of the correction of some trifling errata 
which escaped my eye before, and the addition of 
an engraving of the house in which Strawbridge 
died, and of his grave, taken from the Centennial, 
which only recently came into my hands. Those 
persons who have the previous edition can have a 
copy of this plate free, on enclosing a stamped 
envelope to Mr. Richard Yoakley, Grafton Street; or 
Mr. William Wallace, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin. 

Seldom has any book published in Ireland met 
with a welcome more warm and general. It 
proved far beyond anything I could expect, or 
even dare to hope. I am deeply sensible that 




XV111. 



PREFACE 



this was in good part due to my subject, which had 
an interest almost peculiar to itself; but while 
frankly acknowledging this, I should be ungrateful 
if I were apparently insensible of the kind way in 
which the public press, as well as many honoured 
friends in England and Ireland, have spoken of the 
book as a whole. I am deeply grateful, and only 
wish that it was in my power to make it still more 
worthy of the occasion, and of the cause it aims to 
serve. 

Just as the former edition met the public eye, 
the mournful intelligence reached this land of the 
lamented death, by cholera, at Cincinnati, on Sun- 
day, the 2nd of September, of my beloved and 
honoured friend and brother, the Eev. Eobert 
Wallace. The Irish Conference felt an honest 
pride in his talents and eminent worth ; and though 
he was mysteriously denied the honour of taking 
part in the Centenary Celebration Services in the 
United States, yet his name must be ever asso- 
ciated with those services, in connection with the 
names of his honoured companions, the Eev. 
Dr. Scott and William M'Arthur, Esq. He 
sleeps in Cumminsville Wesleyan Cemetery, near 
Cincinnati ; and his death in America, under cir- 
cumstances of such solemn and mournful interest, 
has served to cement a new and tender bond of 



TO THE SECOND EDITION. xix. 

union between Irish and American Methodism. I 
have a melancholy satisfaction in offering this tri- 
bute to his honoured memory in connection with 
the present edition of this book. 

I am indebted to R Walker, jun., Esq. of Cork, 
for a note conveying the gratifying intelligence 
that the new Cathedral does not interfere in the 
slightest degree with the final resting-place of the 
sainted Boardman ; and from the New York 
Christian Advocate, I learn that our brethren in 
America have done themselves the credit of erect- 
ing a beautiful marble monument to Kobert 
Strawbridge, of which the following is a copy : — 



In 

Memory of 
REVEREND ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE, 

the First 
Methodist Local Preacher 
in Maryland : 
AND ALSO HIS EXCELLENT WIFE. 
October, 1866. 

" How calm his exit : 
Night dews fall not so gentle to the ground, 
Or weary, worn-out winds expire so soft." 



The shaft is of pure Italian marble, fifteen feet 
high, and three feet square at the base, and is 



XX. 



PREFACE. 



placed in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Baltimore, in 
the Preachers' lot, near the final resting-place of 
four Bishops, and several noted heroes of the 
Itinerancy. 

I again commend this Book — the memorial of 
Ireland's place in connexion with the Centenary 
of American Methodism — to the blessing of God, 
and to the friends of Ireland and of Irish Metho- 
dism throughout the world. 

W. C. 

Sligo, December 1st, 1866. 



1 



B 



" Although they were not understood, 
Yet from their spirit and their blood 
Did flow a fair and fertile flood 
Of thoughts and deeds both great and good." 

Thomas Jordan, 1645 



CHAPTEE I. 

PALATINATE OF THE RHINE — POSITION — NAME BLOTTED FROM 
MODERN MAPS— PERSECUTIONS OF THE PALATINES BY THE 
ROMANISTS — TURENNE AND LOUIS XIV. —BURNING OF TOWNS 
AND VILLAGES — FLIGHT OF THE PALATINES TO THE CAMP 
OF MARLBOROUGH — RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE PALA- 
TINES WHEN IN GERMANY — ARRIVAL OF 7,000 IN ENGLAND 
— ENCAMPED AT CAMBERWELL AND BLACKHEATH COMMONS 
— EMIGRATION OF 3,000 TO AMERICA — SETTLEMENT OF RE- 
MAINDER IN IRELAND, PRINCIPALLY ON LORD SOUTHWELL'S 
ESTATE, COUNTY LIMERICK — NAMES OF THOSE WHO THUS 
SETTLED IN 1709 — REV. JOHN WESLEY ON THEIR EMIGRATION 
— TESTIMONIES AS TO THE CHARACTER OF THE PALATINES 
AND SERVICES IN IRELAND — INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM AND 
PROTESTANTISM ON IRISH CHARACTER. 

THE Palatinate of the Ehine was one of the seven 
ancient electorates of Germany. It was long united 
to Bavaria, but was separated in 1294. Tt was divided 
into the Upper and Lower Palatinate : the former 



20 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



situated near the source of the Ehine, with Ambery 
for its capital ; the latter, on both sides of the lower 
Ehine, bordering on France, and having amongst its 
principal cities Heidelberg, Manheim, Deux Ponts, 
and Darmstadt. For between three and four hundred 
years this beautiful State remained in the possession of 
the Palatine House, but the Upper section was lost by 
the defeat of the Elector Palatine, Frederic V., son-in- 
law of James I. of England, at the battle of Prague, 
in 1620. The Palatinate was horribly ravaged by 
Tilly in 1622, and by the French in 1688. In the 
wars which followed the French Eevolution, it was 
divided among different Sovereigns of Germany, and 
hence its name has disappeared from our modern maps. 

The position and great wealth of the Palatinate 
frequently attracted the attention of its more powerful 
neighbours, and led to its inhabitants being familiar 
with the horrors of war. But "at no period of their 
history were the Palatines subjected to greater atroci- 
ties than during the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, the 
professed patron of the arts and sciences ; and this, too, 
just at that period in the history of France denomi- 
nated the golden age of its refinement. At one time 
the principal cities of the Lower Palatinate were 
pillaged and burned ; the defenceless inhabitants were 
hunted into the fields and woods, where many of them, 
stripped of their clothing, were left to perish with 
cold ; others were not even permitted to take refuge in 
German districts, but were driven into the French ter- 
ritory, and forced to remain. The sacred quiet of the 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



21 



grave was no security against French avarice. The 
silver coffins of the ancient Salic emperors, in the 
Cathedral of Spires, were removed, and the venerated 
bones scattered upon the ground. In the struggle 
between France and Germany for the Spanish succes- 
sion, which involved nearly all the European powers, 
these scenes were renewed. In the space of only two 
months, it is said, they levied contributions to the 
amount of nine millions of florins. Houses and villages 
were laid waste by fire and sword."* In short, " the 
entire country was laid waste ; the Elector Palatine 
could see from the towers of Manheim, his capital, no 
less than two cities, and twenty-five villages, on fire at 
once."t Under these circumstances the terrified in- 
habitants fled in thousands, with their children, to 
the camp of the Duke of Marlborough, who, with 
Eugene, Prince of Savoy, commanded the allied 
armies. 

The reader will eagerly ask, " What had these Pala- 
tines done 1 What was their crime ? " The answer is, 
they were Protestants of a sturdy type, and this was 
crime enough in the eyes of Turenne, and his bigoted 
Popish master, Louis the Fourteenth. Germany was 
the birth-place of Luther, and of the Reformation : 
the principles of the Great Reformer found their way 
into the hearts and homes of the inhabitants of the 
Palatinate, and they gloried in bearing his honoured 
name. It was this which brought down upon their 

* Rev. George G. Saxe, M.A. 

f Dr. Stevens's History of the M. E. Church, L, 49. 



22 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



defenceless heads the wrath of the Papacy, as upon 
the Waldenses, and Albigenses, with whom they were 
probably connected by blood ;* and which ultimately 
drove them to seek a home for themselves and their 
children under the Protestant flag of Old England. 
Before we bid farewell to Germany, the reader would 
probably like to ask whether there is any evidence of 
the piety and devotedness of the Palatines when in 
their own country? On this important point I have 
not been able to find any information of a satisfactory 
kind. At the same time, we must remember that Ger- 
many was not merely the home of Protestantism, but 
of Moravianism also ; and the presumption is that 
such an important section of professing Protestants, 
as inhabited the Palatinate, with so inspiring a history, 
were not strangers to the religion of Count Zinzendorf, 
Peter Bohler, Christian David, and other great lights 
of the Moravian Church of that day. The following 
extract from a paper on " Palatine History," by the 
Rev. G. Miller, of Canada — himself an Irish Pala- 
tine, like Embury — supplies the best information on 
the subject which has fallen in my way. Mr. Miller 
says, " We have proof in corroboration of the fact, 
that the Palatines on leaving Germany and settling in 
Ireland were not all destitute of the salutary effects of 

* The bloody persecutions of the "Waldenses led to their emi- 
gration in crowds into Bohemia, and other parts of Germany, 
where they united with the Lutherans and Moravians. — See an 
interesting series of papers on " The Palatines in America 
by G. P. Disosway, Esq. 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



23 



the German Eeformation. They came to the country 
possessed of some of the best theological works, written 
by their reformed Divines. Often have I heard an aged 
grandfather read, in the spirit of ardent devotion, some 
of those books. To the juvenile hearer, it appeared, 
he felt what he read, though not understood by him, 
as the reading was in the German language. They also 
seemed divested of the perplexities of thought, occa- 
sioned by the theological controversies which prevailed 
among Calvinists, Anabaptists, Socinians, and other 
parties, in their country. Aware of the unprovoked 
sufferings of the past, in the theatre of Papal tyranny, 
violence, and bloodshed, they ever seemed fixed in their 
views respecting Protestantism and Popery, as unalter- 
ably antagonistic." This old worthy was one of the 
original band who found a home in Ireland, and, doubt- 
less, there were not a few of the same type amongst 
those who took refuge in the camp of Marlborough. 

In the year 1709, Queen Anne, hearing of the dis- 
tressed condition of this interesting people, sent a fleet 
to Eotterdam, and brought about seven thousand of 
them to England. They were encamped and fed at 
Camberwell and Blackheath Commons. About three 
thousand of this number were sent to New York, 
then a British settlement ; " but, not having been re- 
ceived kindly, they went to Pennsylvania, and, being 
there greatly encouraged by the Quakers, they invited 
over some thousands of German and Swiss Protestants, 
who soon made this country flourishing."* Many of 

* Haydn's Dictionary of Dates. Vincent's Edition. 



24 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



these ultimately settled in North Carolina. "We give 
a few of the names of those who settled in America — 
Erantz Lucas, Deitrich Klein, Conrad Frederich, Ludwig, 
Henrich Newkirk, Keiser, John Martin, Casper Hartwig, 
Christopher Warner, Hermanus Hoffman, Eudolph, Neff, 
Schmidt, Schumacher, Lenhard, John Peter Zenger, 
Philip Miiller, Schaffer, Peter Wagner, Straub, Hen- 
rich Man, Eberhard, Kremer, Eranke, Eoss, Peter 
Becker, Christian Meyer, Godfry Pidler, Weller, George 
Mathias, Christo Hagedorn, Pinck, John William Dill, 
Bernhard, Conradt, Bellinger, &c, &c. 

Owing to the conflicting statements of those who 
have written on the subject, I have experienced consi- 
derable difficulty in ascertaining the probable number 
that ultimately settled in Ireland. We have seen that 
about 7,000 came in the first instance to England, and 
that of this number about 3,000 were sent to the 
British settlements in North America, a large propor- 
tion of whom ultimately settled about Pennsylvania, 
North Carolina, and Maryland. Of the remaining four 
thousand, a few families settled in England, and a few 
more in the County Kerry, and other parts of Ireland : 
but the main body settled on the estate of Lord South- 
well, in the neighbourhood of Eathkeale, County 
Limerick. One or two documents, now before me, say 
that " about fifty families settled on Lord Southwell's 
estate."* A carefully-written paper by the Eev. G. G. 
Saxe, M. A., says — " Of those who remained, five hun- 
dred families removed to Ireland, and settled princi- 
* Dr. G. M. Roberts, and Dr. Stevens. 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



25 



pally in the County of Limerick."* Mr. Wesley, who 
is generally very accurate, named one hundred and ten 
families as the gross number that originally settled on 
Lord Southwell's estate. The following is his record, 
under date Friday, June 23rd, 1758 : — " I rode over to 
Court-Matrix, a colony of Germans, whose parents came 
out of the Palatinate, about fifty years ago. Twenty 
families of them settled here ; twenty more at Killiheen, 
a mile off; fifty at Balligarane, about two miles eastward ; 
and twenty at Pallas, four miles farther, "t At a later 
date he speaks of the Germans at Killfinnen, ;£ and 
elsewhere, but the probability is that these came 
over at a subsequent date, and were not amongst 
the original settlers of 1709. The probability is that 
from five hundred to a thousand persons settled 
on Lord Southwell's estate : many more about New- 
market^ and Killfinnen in the County Limerick, and 
that the remainder were scattered in various parts of 
Ireland, the majority of whom ultimately found a home 
and a final resting-place in the far West. The follow- 
ing is a tolerably complete list of the names of those 
families w r ho settled on Lord Southwell's estate : in 
several instances there were two or more families of the 
same name : — Baker, Barhman, Barrabier, Benner, 
Bethel, Bowen, Bowman, Bovinizer, Brethower, Cole, 
Coach, Corneil, Cronsberry, Dobe, Dulmage, Embury, 

* Ladies' Repository. May, 1859. 
f "Wesley's Journal, II. p. 429. 
% Ibid, III. p. 214. (June, 1765.) 
§ Probably identical with Pallaskenry. 



26 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



Fizzle, Grunse, Guier, Heck, Hoffman, Hifle, Heavener, 
Glozier (probably Legear of our day), Lawrence, Lowes, 
Ledwich, Long, Miller, Mich, Modlen, Xeizer, Piper, 
Bhineheart, Eose, Eodenbucber, Euclile, Switzer, Spar- 
ling, Stack, St. John, St. Ledger, Strangle, Sleeper, 
Shoemaker, Shier, Smeltzer, Shoultace, Shanewise, 
Tesley (probably Teskey of onr day), Tettler, Urshel- 
baugh, Williams, and Young. They were allowed eight 
acres of ground under lease, for each man, woman, and 
child, at five shillings per acre, and the Government, 
in order to encourage the Protestant interest in the 
country, engaged to pay their rent for twenty years. 
It also supplied each man with a musket, called " a 
Queen Anne," to protect himself and family. Those 
capable of bearing arms were enrolled in the free 
yeomanry of the country, and were known as the 
" German Fusiliers," or " True Blues," commanded by 
one Captain Brown. It is probable that Lord South- 
well's leases were for three lives, or fifty years, and that, 
on the expiration of this period, an exorbitant rent was 
demanded for the land ; which will explain the fearful 
tide of emigration which set in about the year 1760, 
and to which Mr. Wesley several times refers in his 
journal. 

The following extracts will be read with interest. 
They will serve to show that the wretched policy of 
driving industrious Protestants from Ireland — with 
which we have been so sadly familiar in modern times 
— was not unknown in our unhappy land more than a 
century ago. "Wednesday, 16th July, 1760. — I rode 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



27 



to Newmarket, which was another German settlement. 
But the poor settlers, with all their diligence and fru- 
gality, could not procure even the coarsest food to eat, 
and the meanest raiment to put on, under their merciful 
landlords; so that most of them, as well as those at 
Balligarane (Ballingran), have been forced to seek bread 
in other places, some of them in distant parts of Ire- 
land, but the greater part in America."* " Friday, June 
14, 1765. — About noon I preached at Bally garene (now 
called Ballingran), to the small remains of the poor 
Palatines. As they could not get food and raiment here 
with all their diligence and frugality, part are scattered 
up and down the kingdom, and part gone to America. 
I stand amazed! Have landlords no common sense 
(whether they have common humanity or no), that they 
will suffer such tenants as these to be starved away from 
them."t " Thursday, May 21, 1767. — I preached about 
noon at Balligarane, to what is left of the poor Palatines. 
Many are gone to America; many scattered up and 
down in various parts of the kingdom. Everywhere 
they are patterns of industry and frugality. "J 

I copy the following notices of this interesting people 
from two books written towards the close of the last 
century. "The Palatines have several other villages 
(beside Court-Matrix) in the county, and have inter- 
married with the natives. They generally have free- 
hold leases for three lives, and are not cottiers to any 

* Wesley's Journal. III. p. 10. 
flbid., III. p. 214. 
I fMd. t III. p. 266-7. 



28 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



farmer. The labour of the natives is commonly bal- 
anced with rent — the Palatines are paid for their work 
in money. Their customs differ from the Irish ; they 
sometimes have their feeding land in common ; they 
sow their potatoes with the plough in drills, and 
plough them out — one third of the dung does in this 
method. They plough without a driver; a boy has 
been known to drive four horses ; and some ploughs 
have a hopper which sows the land. Their course of 
crops is — 1, potatoes; 2, wheat; 3, wheat; 4, oats. 1, 
potatoes; 2, barley; 3, wheat; 4, oats."* 

" The Palatines preserve their language, but it is de- 
clining ; they sleep between two beds ; they appoint 
a Burgomaster, to whom they appeal in all disputes. 
They are industrious men, and have leases from the 
proprietor of the land at a reasonable rent. They are 
consequently better fed and clothed than the generality 
of the Irish peasants. Besides, their mode of hus- 
bandry, and crops, are better than those of their neigh- 
bours. . . They keep their cows housed in winter, 
feeding them with hay and oaten straw ; their houses 
are remarkably clean, to which they have stable, cow- 
house, and lodge for their plough, and neat kitchen gar- 
dens. The women are very industrious, and perform 
many things which the Irish women could never be 
prevailed on to do. Besides their domestic employ- 
ments and the care of their children, they reap the corn, 
plough the ground, and assist the men in everything. 
In short, the Palatines have benefited the country by 
* Young's Tour in Ireland, II. p. 138. (1779.) 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



29 



increasing tillage ; and are a laborious, independent 
people, who are mostly employed on their own small 
farms."* 

Mr. and Mrs. Hall, in their valuable work on Ire- 
land, give the following description of the Palatines, 
which many will read with interest. "Even now they 
are very different in character, and distinct in habits 
from the people of the country. We viewed several of 
their houses in the neighbourhood of Adare ; and the 
neatness, good order, and quantity and quality of the 
furniture — useful and ornamental — too surely indicated 
that we were not in a merely Irish cabin. Huge flitches 
of bacon hung from the rafters; the chairs were in 
several instances composed of walnut-tree and oak; 
massive and heavy, although rudely carved chests, con- 
tained, as we were told, the house linen and woollen, 
and the wardrobes of the inhabitants. The elders of 
the family preserve, in a great degree, the language, 
customs, and religion of their old country ; but the 
younger mingle and marry with their Irish neighbours. 

" The men are tall, fine, stout fellows, as our Irish 
friend said to follow; but there is a calm and stern 
severity and reserve in their aspect that is anything but 
cheering to a traveller to meet ; particularly after being 
accustomed to the brilliant smiles and hearty ' God save 
ye kindly,' so perpetually on the peasant's lips, and 
always in his eyes. This characteristic is also remark- 
able in the cottages. ... In their dealings they are con- 
sidered upright and honourable. Like the Quakers of 
* Ferrar's History of Limerick, p. 412-13. (1786.) 



30 



THT PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



old, they do not interfere with either politics or 
religion ; are cautious as to land taking, and in the 
troublous times, when the generality of persons were 
afraid to walk forth, the quiet Palatine pursued his 
avocations without let or hindrance, being rarely, if ever, 
molested. Many of the old Palatines used to have their 
Bibles buried with them, and this accounts for our being 
unable to find any other than English Bibles in their 
houses. We failed, indeed, to discover any books in 
their own language ; but one of the elders told us they 
had given many of them to the soldiers of the German 
Legion, as keepsakes, while that body was quartered in 
the neighbourhood. They are at present, both as re- 
gards their customs and traditions, only a relic of the 
past ; and yet one so strongly marked and so peculiar, 
that it will take a long time before all trace of the 
' Fatherland' is obliterated. Their superstitions, also, 
savour strongly of the banks of the Rhine; but they 
are careful in communicating them, which may proceed 
from their habitual reserve. They retain the names of 
their ancestors, such as 6 Fritz,' ' Meta,' £ Ella/ £ Euth,' 
' Ebenezer,' which are common among them, and sound 
strangely when mingled with the more aboriginal 
Dinnys and Nellys."' 55 ' 

The industry and social comfort which distinguish the 
Palatines have attracted the attention of all who have 
written about them, and deservedly so. But it is ano- 
ther and more difficult thing to explain the cause of 
their superiority to many of the peasantry around 
* Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall on Ireland. 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



31 



them. Kohl, himself a German, resolves it into a 
matter of race. He says — " It is an everlasting subject 
of controversy in Ireland, between the friends of the 
Irish (or Celts) and the adherents of the English, 
between the Celtomanes and the Anglomanes, whether 
the misery and the poverty of Ireland are attri- 
butable to the English and their tyranny alone, or in a 
still greater measure to the indolence and torpidity of 
the Irish character. These Germans, nourishing on the 
same soil, and under the same political relations, seem 
to decide this question not much in favour of the 
Celts."* But the true cause of the poverty and 
wretchedness of the Irish Celts lies deeper than the 
mere fact of race : — it is Popery that has impoverished 
them and kept them down, shedding its baneful in- 
fluence like the Upas tree over all beneath its influence, 
as seen in Spain, beneath the sunny skies of Italy, and 
in poor priest-ridden Ireland. On the contrary, it is 
Protestantism that has elevated the Palatines, the 
sturdy inhabitants of Ulster, and the thousands of 
stalwart Methodists, respectable, and respected, who 
are to be found in our various circuits throughout the 
land. Many of these, for intelligence, manly vigour, 
and success, will compare favourably with any of the 
same class that could be produced in England, or Scot- 
land, or Germany. That Old Book, the free use of 
which is denied the vast proportion of the inhabitants 
of this unfortunate land, has said plainly enough — and 

* Travels in Ireland. By J. G. Kohl. London, 1844. A 
book well worth reading. 



32 THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 

Ireland from north to south attests its stern truth — 
" He that tilleth his land shall have plenty 
of bread ; but he that followeth after vain 
persons shall have poverty enough." (pro verbs, 
xxviii. 19.)* 



* The following touches one aspect of the case against Popery: — 

" It was once endeavoured to be explained to me, that the 
comparative lowness of condition of the Irish (Romish) peasantry- 
arose from a fact that might not have been brought before me — 
namely, that an Irish Romanist's year has but 200 days " ! I 
confessed that the proposition was novel to me, and my infor- 
mant, with perfect gravity, thus logically, and, as he consi- 
dered, unanswerably, demonstrated it : — " You will allow," said 
he, "an Irishman has 52 Sabbaths, in which he should not 
work. Granted. Then there are 52 days. Not an Irishman 
that doesn't attend at least one market weekly : there go 52 
more days. Find an Irishman, if you can, that does not attend 
one fair a month : there go 12 more days. Where is the man, 
if he be at all respectable, that won't devote his afternoon, or 
half-day, to the wake or funeral of his friend or neighbour : and 
it's a poor neighbourhood that there won't be one death in the 
week : there go 26 days more. Then, you know there are 
Saints'-days, and holy- days, and our birth-days ; and maybe Dan 
will be getting up a precurshur, or a tithe-maiting, or the likes 
o' that, which a man is bound to attend for the love of Ould 
Ireland ; and now make your reckoning, and see whether a man 
will have more than 200 days in a year he can call his own." — 
R. Montgomery Martin, on Ireland Before and A fter the Union, 
p. 191. A book well worth the attention of the so-called Protes- 
tants of our degenerate times, who hand over the Constitution 
of the country by piecemeal into the hands of the Man of Sin, 



THE PALATINES IN IRELAND. 



33 



and call their apostacy from the principles which cost their 
fathers their blood by the agreeable name — Liberalism ! 

" We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow ; 
Our wiser sotis, no doubt, will one day think us so. " 



The gross number of Palatines at present on the Eathkeale 
Circuit is about 600, of whom 244 returned themselves as 
Methodists at the last Census ; and many more would have so 
entered themselves but that they misunderstood the matter, 
and as they were not actually church members, went in with 
the Episcopalians. About 300 are Episcopalians, and from 
20 to 25 have, by intermarriages, gone over to Rome. The 
grandfather of the present Lord Southwell married a French 
lady, a Eomanist, and himself and family joined the Romanists, 
which will, to some extent, explain the growing influence of 
Popery on the estate. Lord Dunraven, of Adare, on whose 
property many of the Palatines live, has also gone from the 
Church of England to the Church of Rome, so that it is no 
matter of surprise if some of the congregation follow so in- 
fluential an example. 




C 



51 

(Dttgfat att& p»pc»8 
JletjjoMsm amongst tfje palatines. 

> < m+^ < 



" Nearly forty years ago, that excellent man, Mr. Edwards, of Bedford- 
bury (Mr. Fletcher's leader), told ine that he and the other leaders in 
London lamented that Mr. Wesley and his brother should spend so much 
time in Ireland, and send so many preachers thither. Mr. Wesley replied : 
' Have patience, and Ireland will repay you.' 'We could hardly think it,' 
said the good man ; 1 but when Mr. Walsh came we saw that Mr. Wesley's 
faith was better than ours.' " — Moore's Life of Wesley, vol ii. , p. 132. 1825. 



CHAPTER II. 



©right aitir ^xagtm 

of 

$jjU%fciam amongst % |)da;thm 

character and appearance of the palatine villages — 
ballingran — character of the palatines prior to the 
introduction of methodism — mr. wesley's testimony — 
some honourable exceptions— philip guter — introduc- 
tion of methodism into limerick by robert swindells 
— his bravery in preaching on the king's parade, march 
17, 1749 — " swaddlers" — mrs. bennis, of limerick — 
thomas walsh the ultimate fruit of swindells's sermon 
on the street — walsh's character and value as a man 
and a minister— swindells and the first methodist 
class in limerick — mother of the rev. william myles— 
thomas williams — his popularity, calvinism, and fall 
— origin of methodism amongst the palatines — first 
class at newmarket — wesley* s first visit to them — 
walsh commences to preach amongst the palatines — 
cownley and other labourers — wesley's second visit 
to limerick — first irish conference — wesley and cal- 
vinism — philip guier and five others received on trial 
as preachers — wesley's first visit to ballingran in 
1756 — thomas walsh preaching in irish — wesley's 
seventh visit to ireland —irish conference of 1758 — 
philip embury and william thompson received on trial 
— illness of walsh — his death, and mental suffering 
explained — important document, respecting walsh's 
last illness, from the rev. john dinnen — charles 
wesley's lines on his death— wesley's further visits 



38 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



TO THE PALATINES — DEATH OF PHILIP GOTER — WESLEY'S LAST 
VISIT — GREAT REVIVAL AMONGST THEM — REV. MR. INGRAM, 
OF LIMERICK — WESLEY'S FINAL TESTIMONY AS TO THE CHA- 
RACTER OF THE IRISH CONFERENCE IN 1789 — HIS INTEREST 
IN IRELAND, AND IN THE PALATINES, AND HIS REMARKABLE 
PREDICTION CONCERNING IRELAND, AND ITS FULFILMENT. 

¥E have seen that Court-Matrix, KQliheen, Bal- 
lingran, and Pallas were the principal settlements 
of the Palatines in the Connty Limerick, and that fifty 
families out of one hundred and ten settled at Ballin- 
gran. So far as I can learn, these places as villages 
had no existence previous to the arrival of the Ger- 
mans. The name now given to the village was pro- 
bably the designation of the townland, and, when the 
Germans settled on the ground, the name of the town- 
land passed over to the new German village or settle- 
ment. On taking possession, the Palatines erected 
small, neat cottages, with farm houses, &c, each man 
on his own ground ; but the houses were rather in 
small detached groups than in the form of a street. 
Court-Matrix was an exception to this arrangement, 
as it was built in the form of a square. The houses, a 
hundred years ago, were probably twice or three times 
more numerous than at present ; and, as it was in the 
summer when Mr. Wesley always visited these villages, 
it is no matter of surprise that he was literally charmed 
with them, as they must have presented a most lively 
and picturesque appearance to the eye of a stranger. 

As the Palatines had brought no German minister 
with them, and for many years after their settlement in 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 



30 



Ireland understood little or no English, they lost the 
habit of attending on public worship, and gradually (to 
use Mr. Wesley's language) " became eminent for drunk- 
enness, cursing, swearing, and an utter neglect of re- 
ligion."* As a class, they were attached to the form of 
godliness, and some of the elder ones, doubtless, knew 
something of its power; but, having no Protestant 
minister worthy of the name within reach, and no one 
to care for their souls, they rapidly degenerated, aban- 
doned even the form of godliness, and became distin- 
guished for every kind of wickedness. One shudders, 
even at this distance, as he thinks upon the moral state 
of this interesting people, and the proud flood of un- 
godliness in the midst of which they and their children 
dwelt, during the forty years which intervened from 
their coming to Ireland, and the day when first they 
heard the Gospel of Christ from the lips of a Methodist 
preacher. 

Amid the general degeneracy, it is likely that there 
were some honourable exceptions, though their names 
are unknown to us. But, one name demands special 
notice here — the honoured name of Philip Guiek.t He 
lived at Ballingran, and was Burgomaster, or Magistrate, 
and also master of the German School in that place. 
Before the introduction of Methodism he had consider- 
able influence amongst the Palatines, and after his union 

* "Wesley's Journal, II. p. 429. 

1 1 find this name spelled Geyer, Guyer, Gier, and Guier. I 
prefer the last form as it is thus spelled in the list of original 
settlers, given in former chapter. 



40 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



with the Methodists, that influence, as we shall see by 
and by, considerably increased. For the present I must 
pass from Philip ; his honoured name will come up again 
in the course of this narrative. 

The first Methodist preacher who proclaimed the 
gospel in Limerick, was Eobert Swindells, on the 17th 
of March, 1 749. He was one of the choice spirits of 
the Itinerancy ; and as a preacher, a special favourite 
with Wesley. He came over with John Wesley on the 
occasion of his second visit to Ireland, in March, 1748, 
and accompanied him in his tour, preaching with great 
power. He accompanied Charles Wesley in the autumn 
of the same year, to Cork, and various parts of the South 
of Ireland — a visit which issued in the introduction of 
Methodism into Bandon, and other important centres of 
Methodist influence in the South. After Charles Wesley's 
return to England, Swindells remained, with Cownley, 

LARWOOD, J O NATHAN EEEVES, THOMAS WlLLIAMS, WlL- 

liam Tucker, and Charles Skelton. In the true 
spirit of Methodist evangelism, these brave itinerants 
traversed the entire country, preacliing in the street, 
after the primitive fashion. Swindells had no invitation 
to Limerick, but had an impression that he should go. 
On Patrick's Day, he opened his commission by 
preaching on the King's Parade twice. With char- 
acteristic intrepidity, he selected the hours when 
the crowds were coming out of mass, and speedily was 
surrounded by a noble congregation. He seems to have 
got a patient, respectful hearing at the first service; but 
did not fare quite so well at the second. Mr. Myles 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 



41 



intimates that "no rudeness was offered to him" at 
either service, but that the people were delighted with 
the hymns and singing.* This is a complete mistake, 
as the following extract proves. "I saw Mr. Robert 
Swindells, who was the first that came here to preach, 
pass by my door with a great mob after him, who hal- 
looed and made a great noise, and sometimes personally 
insulted him. Upon my inquiring who he was, they 
told me that he was one of the people called ' Swaddlers ;'t 
but I had no desire or intention of hearing him preach, 
yet I thought it a pity that a portly, well-looking man, 
and by every outward appearance, a gentleman, should 
be so shamefully used, and felt a particular concern for 
him. I did not go to hear him, nor would my pride 
suffer me to mix with such a rabble; but afterwards, 
hearing a great account of the sermon from a person who 

* Eev. W. Myles on Methodism in Limerick. — Wesley an 
Magazine, 1825. 595. 

+ This name was first given to John Cennick, a Moravian 
(formerly a Methodist) under the following circumstances. In 
1746, he preached in Swift's Alley, in Dublin (I suppose on 
Christmas Day), from the words "Ye shall find the babe wrapped 
in swaddling clothes," &c. A priest was in the congregation, 
who, as Mr. Wesley naively says, "probably did not know the 
expression was in the Bible — a book he was not much, acquainted 
with" — and he called Cennick a ' ' swaddler. ' ' The mob thought 
the designation quite too good to be lost, and when the Metho- 
dists assembled the following year in Dolphin's Barn, they 
called them "swaddlers." The name spread with remarkable 
rapidity. Hence, in 1749, in the famous riots at Cork, the mob 
shouted through the streets, night and day, " Five pounds for 
a swaddler's head !" &c. 



42 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



was there, I resolved to go in the evening, in company 
with him, which I did, and was much affected."* Singu- 
larly enough, this lady's name was the first entered in 
the class paper, when a few days after, a society was 
formed in Limerick. She became distinguished amongst 
the Methodists of that day for eminent devotedness, and 
for many years was a particular friend and valued cor- 
respondent of Wesley's. Swindells, so far from being 
intimidated by the mob, preached again on the following 
day, at the Market House, in the Irishtown, and 
doubtless with a reception of a similar kind. As I write 
these lines, I feel a respect which I cannot utter, nor 
yet repress, for this honoured and devoted man. To 
think of him, without money, or friends, or patronage — 
a solitary Methodist preacher — alone and yet not alone, 
standing up to preach the glorious gospel of the blessed 
God, on the open street, in popish Limerick, a hundred 
and seventeen years ago ! What a fearless, intrepid 
heart must have throbbed within that manly breast! 
If any man should think that Swindells displayed small 
courage then, let him try it now, or on next Patrick's 
Day, and I venture to predict his courage will cool down 
as rapidly as that of the immortal "hundred" from Eng- 
land and Scotland who essayed the conquest of Ireland, 
in the summer of 1853. t 

* Mrs. Bennis' Letters to Rev. John Wesley. 

t One of the best of this notable band, on his way to his six 
weeks' campaign in the South, preached in one of our churches 
on Sunday morning. I was behind him in the pulpit. The ser- 
mon was founded on Psalms xviii. 29 — ' ' For by thee have I run 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 43 

One of the texts from which Swindells preached on 
the Parade on Patrick's Day was u Come unto me all 
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest" (Matt. xi. 28). Among his congregation was a 
young man, a Romanist, educated for the priesthood, 
whose soul was oppressed, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, with 
the burden of guilt, and whose anguished spirit was 
panting for a message like this. It was the first Metho- 
dist sermon he ever heard. It was the dawn of a new 
day in his history, as well as in the life history of a 
multitude in Ireland and England whom no man could 
number. A few weeks after he heard Thomas Wil- 
liams with deep and growing interest, and joined the 
society at Newmarket, September 29th, 1749. Early 
in 1750, under the ministry of William Tucker, he 
obtained a glorious sense of sins forgiven. That young 
man — the first-fruits of street- preaching in Ireland to 

through a troop ; and by my God have 1 leaped over a wall." 
The sermon was very glowing ; and the preacher would remind 
one of Job's description of a war-horse. He was literally im- 
patient to reach the moral battle-field. He thought that the 
condition of the Eomanists of Ireland was to be traced to the in- 
dolence and want of " English pluck," on the part of Irishmen, 
Methodists of course included. In vain I assured him that he 
was likely, ere long, to know more about it. He got to the end 
of his route by Wednesday evening, without more than attempt- 
ing a single service ; and during that service, a woman struck 
him with an iron instrument, amid a serious riot, inflicting a 
slight wound on the right hand. On the very following Sabbath, 
after the delivery of the brave discourse above referred to, I heard 
him preach, with his hand in a sling, from the same pulpit. 
The text now was, My soul cleaveth to the dust ! 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



Christ — within a brief period expanded into a Metho- 
dist evangelist, second only to Wesley himself, for 
seraphic piety, sanctified enthusiasm in the glorious 
work of winning souls to Christ, and genuine apostolic 
success. " Thou knowest my desire," he wrote; "thou 
knowest there has never been a saint upon earth whom 
I do not desire to resemble in doing and suffering thy 
whole will. I would walk with thee, my God, as Enoch 
did. I would follow thee to a land unknown, as 
Abraham did. I would renounce all for thee, as did 
Moses and Paul. I would, as did Stephen, seal thy truth 
with my blood ! " Concerning him, Southey says " that 
his life might indeed almost convince a Catholic that 
saints are to be found in other communions as well as 
in the Church of Some." Wesley, writing to his 
brother Charles, said of him, " I love, admire, and 
honour him, and wish we had six preachers in all Eng- 
land of his spirit. When, ten years later, he was laid 
in his grave, after a brief but extraordinary career, the 
'Methodists of England and Ireland mingled their tears 
over the early removal of Thomas Walsh — 

" One of the few — the immortal names, 
That were not born to die." 

About a month after Swindells's first visit, he returned 
and formed the first Methodist class in Limerick. 
Meantime, Williams had visited Limerick, and attracted 
considerable attention by preaching, like Swindells, on 
the street. It is likely that a riot would have ensued 
at Limerick as bad or worse, if possible, than the famous 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 45 



riot which has given Cork such an unenviable notoriety 
in the annals of Methodism, but that a regiment of 
Highlanders was just then quartered in the city, about 
sixty of whom had been members of the infant church 
at Athlone. They attended the services on the street, 
and sung the Methodist hymns with great spirit and 
effect. Mr. "Wesley says " they were men fit to appear 
before princes;" of most commanding appearance; in 
their absence Swindells and Williams would, in all pro- 
bability, have been torn to pieces by the infuriated 
mob. 

Mr. Myles says that Williams "formed the first 
society in Limerick," but the testimony of Mrs. Bennis 
is most conclusive in favour of Swindells, as given above. 
" In about a month after Mr. Swindells returned, and 
finding many were willing to receive the Word, he soon 
established a society, of which I was determined to be 
one ; I was one of the first that joined; I believe the 
first that stood up and gave him my name."* Amongst 
the first-fruits of Williams's ministry in Limerick was a 
lady, who a few years after became the mother of the 
late Eev. William Mtles, author of the well-known 
" Chronological History of Methodism."t 

Swindells now went on to Cork, leaving Williams in 
charge of Limerick. "He was a man of showy talents, 
who was listened to by all sorts and conditions. "J His 

* Mrs. Bennis' Letters. 

t Memoir of the Rev. William Myles, by the late Eev. Dr. 
Beecham, in Wesley an Magazine, May, 1831. 

+ Alexander Knox, Esq., speaking of Williams when in Derry. 



46 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



popularity was immense, and within a brief period 300 
members were enrolled in society. Mr. Myles adds, 
" But when discipline and the doctrine of self-denial 
came to be explained and enforced in the society meet- 
ings, two-thirds of them fell away before twelve months 
had elapsed." Williams, before he left England, as the 
result of contact with the Moravians, became tinged 
with Calvinism, and " leaned" to some Antmominian 
errors, not unlike the Plymouth heresy of our day. He 
was, to all appearance, a devoted, zealous man, but was 
not in Wesley's confidence. Calvinism subsequently 
wrought his ruin. After his expulsion, Wesley speaks 
of him as one " to whom ' the syren song' would be 
grateful, that believers who are notorious transgressors 
in themselves have a sinless obedience in Christ." He 
joined the Church of England, and became incumbent 
of High- Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He happened to 
be the first of Wesley's preachers that the Palatines 
heard. He was preaching on the street one day in April, 
1749, surrounded by a vast crowd. Many of the 
Palatines from Newmarket were in town attending the 
assizes. They joined the crowd, and heard with great 
delight. Some of the older ones said, " This is like the 
preaching we used to hear in Germany." They were 
attracted to hear again and again, and ultimately in- 
vited him and his brave companions to visit their settle- 
ments.* It is impossible to say whether it was Swin- 

* I follow Mr. Myles in the above account. I find another ac- 
count in the hand- writing of the late Rev. John Dinnen, who was 
stationed on this circuit in 1786 :— "How the Gospel was in- 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 47 



dells or Williams who first embraced this invitation, but 
I think it likely that it was Williams. Swindells, 
within a few months, had penetrated all the Palatine 
settlements, and by Sept., 1749, we find a society formed 
at ISTewmarket, of which Thomas Walsh was a member. 

The progress of Methodism amongst this interesting 
people was very rapid. Under date, Monday, June 4, 
1750, Wesley writes : — " I rode to Newmarket, a vil- 
lage near the Shannon, eight miles, as they call it, from 
Limerick. I found the spirit of the people while I was 
preaching; but much more in examining the society. 
Four or five times I was stopped short, and could not go 
on, being not able to speak, particularly when I was talk- 

troduced amongst the Palatines — Two women who lived in 
Court-Matrix fell out, and used the woman's weapon, the 
tongue, very freely. As no strokes were given, one of them 
heard of a court called the Bishop's Court, in Limerick, which 
she was told took cognizance of abusive language. She set off 
to Limerick filled with rage and revenge. "When she arrived in 
the city the court was shut for that day. She determined to 
stay till next day, and as she walked through the street she 
heard singing in Quay Lane. Curosity led her to stop, and she 
heard a sermon which reached her heart. She returned home 
free from wrath and revenge, told her neighbours what she had 
heard, and invited them to come to Limerick and hear for 
themselves. They did so, and as the result a preacher was in 
vited, and preaching has continued there ever since." — MS. 
Sketch of the Rev. John Dinnen, p. 22. 1788. 

It is probable that both these statements are correct, as Mr. 
Dinnen's narrative may refer to the introduction of Methodism 
to Court-Matrix and Mr. Myles's to Newmarket, where we had 
the first society amongst the Palatines. 



48 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



ing with, a child, about nine years old, whose words 
astonished all that heard. The same spirit we found in 
prayer, so that my voice was well nigh lost among the 
various cries of the people."* It was, in all probabi- 
lity, at this meeting, that Wesley first met Thomas 
Walsh, which interview issued in Walsh's entrance on 
his glorious career as a Methodist Itinerant. " I opened 
my mind," says Walsh, " to that man of God, the Eev. 
Mr. John Wesley. I spoke my thoughts freely and 
without disguise, desiring his advice on the occasion, 
which he sweetly and humbly gave me ; adding, withal, 
that I might write to him afterwards. I did so, giving 
him a brief account of my conversion to God, and of 
what I experienced in my soul concerning preaching." 
His answer was as follows : — " My dear Brother, — It is 
hard to judge what God has called you to till trial is 
made. Therefore, when you have an opportunity, you 
may go to Shronil,t and spend two or three days with 
the people there. Speak to them in Irish." Swindells 
and Williams had already formed a society at Shronil, 
where Mr. Wesley says he " found a handful of serious, 
loving people." Morgan, Walsh's biographer, calls the 
inhabitants "Protestant Dissenters." They were pro- 
bably Palatines, who came from Germany at a more 
recent date than the original settlers. In July, 1750, 
Walsh opened his commission as a Methodist preacher, 
amongst this " serious, loving people, by preaching from 
Eom. iii., 28 : — " Therefore, we conclude that a man is 

* "Wesley's Journal, II. p. 184. 

t Not Thornhill, as Dr. Smith says. 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 49 

justified by faith, without the deeds of the law." And, 
in the true spirit of the primitive Itinerancy, on the 
following morning from Rom. v. 1 — " Being justified 
by faith, we have peace with. God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." Such was the commencement of what 
Wesley regarded as the most fruitful ministry which he 
had ever known. 

It is probable that Philip Guier was appointed the 
leader of the infant churches in the Palatine settle- 
ments during this, Wesley's first visit. From this 
period, till his next visit, in August, 1752, ac- 
cording to his plan at that time, all the Itinerants 
labouring in Ireland spent a brief period in each place. 
Thus, the Palatine settlements were favoured with the 
ministry of Cownlet (whom Wesley regarded as the 
best preacher in the Connexion), Larwood, Skelton, 
William Tucker, Thomas Reade, Jonathan Eeeves, 
John Haughton, Jacob Powell, and other veterans of 
that heroic period, and speedily the moral wilderness 
bloomed and blossomed as the rose. 

In August, 1752, Wesley visited Limerick for the 
second time, on which occasion he held the first Con- 
ference with his Itinerants in Ireland. The record in 
his journal is characteristically brief: — " I spent Friday 
and Saturday in conference with our preachers, and the 
next week spake with each of the members of the 
society, many of whom, I now found, "were rooted and 
grounded in love," and "zealous of good works." 

Happily we have some valuable notes of the proceed- 
ings of this first Irish. Conference. The Rev. Samuel 

D 



50 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



Wood came into possession of some notes taken by one 
of the preachers present, which he published in the 
Irish Methodist Magazine, for 1807, and which were 
republished in Myles's History of Methodism. The notes 
of Jacob Rowell, which were much more full and accu- 
rate, have been found of late years, and leave us little to 
desire in the way of information relative to the proceed- 
ings of the Conference. The following composed the 
Conference : — John Wesley, Samuel Larwood, John 
Haughton, Joseph Cownley, John Fisher, Thomas 
Walsh, Jacob Eowell, Thomas Kead, Robert Swin- 
dells, John Whitpord, and James Morris, all of whom, 
with the exception of Morris, may be regarded as 
Wesley's staff of Itinerants then labouring in Ireland. 
Wesley had reason to suspect that the Calvinistic leaven 
had injured more of his Itinerants than Williams, and 
he dreaded its baneful influence upon preachers and 
people as he did the plague. Hence, a large proportion 
of the time of this first Conference was given up to this 
subject. In answer to the question, "What wrong 
doctrines have been taught V we find the answer, " Such 
as border on Antinomianism and Calvinism." Baxter's 
Aphorisms on Justification were then " read carefully, 
and the Scriptures referred to examined, and all objec- 
tions considered and answered." This course was all 
the more necessary because of the influence of Moravian 
teaching upon Methodism at that time, and many 
of these devoted labourers were young men who had 
had but little time or opportunity for obtaining clear 
views as to the doctrinal teaching of the Word of God 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 51 



on these controverted points. At this Conference, 
Philip Guier, of Ballingran, James Morris, John Ellis, 
James Wild, Samuel Levick,* and Samuel Hobart, were 
received as " fellow-labourers." Philip was received as 
what Wesley called " a Local Preacher," as distin- 
guished from an Itinerant. Wesley never intended 
him to travel, but made him the first Methodist pastor 
of the Palatines. 

In 1756, Wesley again visited Limerick, and now for 
the first time preached in Ballingran, the home of 
Philip Embury and Barbara Heck, of whom more by 
and by. Doubtless both were members of his congre- 
gation on the occasion of this interesting visit. The 
following is Wesley's record ; how little he thought the 
mighty and far-reaching influence some in that congre- 
gation were destined to exert by and by ! " Wednesday, 
June 16. — In the afternoon I rode to Ballygarane 
(Ballingran,) a town of Palatines who came over in 
Queen Anne's time. They retain much of the temper 
and manners of their own country, having no resem- 
blance of those among whom they live. I found much 
life among this plain, artless, serious people. The 
whole town came together in the evening, and praised 
God for the consolation. Many of those who are not 
outwardly joined with us walk in the light of God's 
countenance; yea, and have divided themselves into 
classes, in imitation of our brethren, with whom they 

* Called George Levick in new edition of British Minutes, 
and also in the Irish Minutes, copied from them. Misprinted 
Lerick in Myles. Fourth Edit. 1813. 



52 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



live in perfect harmony." "Friday, 18. — Tn examin- 
ing the society, I was obliged to pause several times. 
The words of the plain, honest people, came with so 
much weight, as frequently to stop me for a while, and 
raise a general cry among the hearers. I rode back 
through Adair, once a strong and nourishing town, well 
walled and full of people — now, without walls and 
almost without inhabitants — only a few poor huts 
remain. At a small distance from these are the ample 
ruins of three or four convents, delightfully situated by 
the river, which runs through a most fruitful vale."* 
Thomas Walsh accompanied Wesley in this tour, 
preaching to large congregations both in Irish and in 
English. 

Amongst the Itinerants stationed in Ireland between 

Wesley's sixth and seventh visits, in addition to some 

of those already named, were Christopher Hopper, one 

of Wesley's choice men; John Murlin, the "weeping 

prophet;" Thomas Olivers, one of the ablest men of his 

day; Nicholas Gilbert, whom Wesley calls "an 

excellent preacher;" and Paul Greenwood, whom 

Atmore denominates "a primitive Christian." All 

of these honoured men in turn visited the Palatine 

settlements, and rejoiced in success worthy of apostolic 
times. 

In June, 1758, Wesley visited Ireland for the seventh 
time, accompanied by Swindells, as a travelling com- 
panion. On this occasion he spent several days in 
Limerick, and the Palatine settlements in the neigh- 
* Wesley's Journal, II. p. 354. 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 53 

bourhood. The following is his record. " Saturday, 
June 17. — I met Thomas Walsh once more in Limerick, 
alive, and but just alive. Three of the best physicians 
in these parts have attended him, and all agree that it 
is a lost case • that by violent straining of his voice, 
added to frequent colds, he has contracted a pulmonary 
consumption, which is now in the last stage, and con- 
sequently beyond the reach of any human help. 
what a man, to be snatched away in the strength of his 
years! Surely thy judgments are a great deep." 
"Wednesday, 21. — Our little Conference began, at 
which fourteen preachers were present. We settled all 
things here which we judged would be of use to the 
preachers or the societies, and consulted how to remove 
whatever might be an hindrance to the work of God." 
"Friday, 23. — I rode over to Court-Matrix, a colony of 
Germans, whose parents came out of the Palatinate about 
fifty years ago. Twenty families of them settled here ; 
twenty more at Killiheen, a mile off ; fifty at Balligarane 
(Ballingran), about two miles eastward ; and twenty at 
Pallas, four miles further. Each family had a few acres 
of ground, on which they built as many little houses. 
They are since considerably increased in number of 
souls, though decreased in number of families. Having 
no minister, they were become eminent for drunken- 
ness, cursing, swearing, and an utter neglect of religion. 
But they are washed since they heard and received the 
truth which is able to save their souls. An oath is now 
rarely heard among them, or a drunkard seen in their 
borders. Court-Matrix is built in the form of a square, 



54 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



in the middle of which, they have placed a pretty large 
preaching-house, hut it would not contain one-half of 
the congregation, so I stood in a large yard. The wind 
kept off the rain while I was preaching. As soon as I 
ended it began."* This was Wesley's final interview 
with Walsh, whom to his latest hour he regarded as the 
most remarkable man he had ever known. Speaking 
of his biblical knowledge, Wesley said, "I knew a 
young man who was so thoroughly acquainted with the 
Bible that if he was questioned concerning any Hebrew 
word in the Old, or any Greek word in the l^ew Testa- 
ment, he would tell, after a little pause, not only how 
often the one or the other occurred in the Bible, but also 
what it meant in every 2>lace. His name was Thomas 
Walsh. Such a master of biblical knowledge I never 
saw before, and never expect to see again." t It is 
rather a remarkable coincidence that at this Conference, 
when Wesley, in the mysterious providence of God, 
was called to bid farewell to Thomas Walsh, Philip 
* Wesley's Journal, II. p. 429. 

f Walsh's Hebrew Bible fell into tbe bands of tbe late Eev. 
Fossey Tackaberry, who prized it above gold. Mr. Tackaberry 
lost his life during the famine fever of 1847. He expired in the 
arms of the Eev. James S. Waugh, President of the Australian 
Conference, who was then station ed with him in Sligo. Mrs. Tacka- 
berry gave Walsh's Bible to Mr. Waugh, in memorial of his de- 
voted attention to Mr. Tackaberry during his final illness, 
and he brought it to Australia when leaving Ireland. Dur- 
ing the recent visit of the Eev. Dr. Jobson to Australia, Mr. 
Waugh presented him with this Bible, and it is now in the pos- 
session of Dr. Jobson. — (See Australia, with Notes by the Way.) 
Should not this Bible be presented to the library of our new 
College in Belfast ? 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 



55 



Embury, — whose name and memory are destined to last 
long as time itself, — and William Thompson, — after- 
wards one of the leading spirits of the Connexion, and 
the first President of the British Conference, — were 
received on trial as travelling preachers. 

Walsh lingered till the following April, and then, 
after a lengthened and most distressing period of 
mental conflict and gloom, the dark clond broke, he 
exultingly cried ont, "He is come ! He is come ! My 
Beloved is mine, and i am His ; His for ever !" and, 
uttering these words, his pure and noble spirit gently 
passed away to see Him as He is. He died in one of 
the rooms over Whitefriar Street Chapel, Dublin, on 
the 8th of April, 1759. His remains sleep in "the 
Cabbage Garden," off Cathedral Lane, till the morn- 
ing of the resurrection. I am ashamed to add, no 
stone was ever erected to his memory, and the spot 
where his precious dust reposes must be for ever un- 
known.* 

* " Till I read the memoir of the late Rev. Wm. Crook I 
supposed that Thomas Walsh had been buried in Patrick's. I 
had the books of Nicholas Without searched, and found that 
he was buried in the ' Cabbage Garden, ' as ' Mr. Walsh :' his 
baptismal name is not inserted." — Letter from J. Ouseley 
Bonsall, Esq., to the Author. 

Mr. Bonsall adds a note on ''the Cabbage Garden," which, 
as it relates to the final resting-place of many of the first and 
second race of Dublin Methodists, is worth transcribing : — 
' ' Cabbage Garden — the unsuitable designation of a place of 
interment is as follows : — Formerly there was no parish in 
Dublin of Nicholas Without. A portion of Luke's parish, 
southward, was formed into a distinct parish, and, to provide a 
burial-ground for it, a piece of a large garden, known as the 



56 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



Melville Home, and many others, have written 
freely by way of explaining the sad and fearful gloom 
which for so long a period overhung the dying bed of this 
honoured and devoted man. For my own part, I believe 
the cause to have been purely physical — the result of a 
physical agent acting upon a shattered nervous system 
— with which religion had nothing whatever to do. 
Dr. Stevens shrewdly says, " Disease and drugs have 
much effect on the shattered sensibilities and I have 
pleasure (even at the risk of being charged with a 
digression) in publishing the following important docu- 
ment, from under the hand of the late Eev. John 
Dinnen, which, if I mistake not, gives the true ex- 
planation of Walsh's unaccountable depression. Mr. 
Dinnen says, " It often paiued me that Walsh's biogra- 
pher left him rather in the shade in his last moments. 
The following anecdote was related to me by his brother, 



city Cabbage Garden, was enclosed for the use of the newly- 
formed parish. The remainder continued to be used for the 
growth of vegetables. Hence the name ' Cabbage Garden. ' 
I have before me a map of Dublin, 1768, in which said Cabbage 
Garden is marked, no building being then close to it or beyond 
it. Since then the city has extended." 

In a subsequent letter, Mr. Bonsall says : — "A little anec- 
dote of Thomas "Walsh, connected with "Whitefriar Street 
Chapel, and which, I believe, is now known only to myself, is : 
— During his last illness (for during it his abode was the lobby 
of that chapel) one room was his sleeping apartment, another 
his sitting room. On a pane of glass, in his sitting room, he 
wrote, with a diamond, in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, 
the same sentence — ' Never satisfied icith my self. , " 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 57 

Doctor Walsh, who was eminent in his profession, and 
a truly pious man : — ' When Thomas and I were hoys,' 
said the Doctor, ' I dreamed that we were going to 
school, and stopped at a small house, where a dove 
perched on Thomas's shoulder. He then ran across a green 
field which we had to pass, but was stopped by a stile, 
w^hich he could not get over until I helped him across. 
This dream made a deep impression upon my mind. When 
my brother was ordered by his English physicians to his 
native air, he came to the County Limerick in a very 
low state. While he remained with us he was little 
better from the change of place. On his return to 
Dublin I accompanied him as far as Eoscrea. When 
taking leave of him, I expressed my fears that I should 
not see him again. He replied in a very impressive 
manner, " / shall not die till I see you again.'" A few 
weeks after, I read an account of his death, in one of 
the Dublin newspapers. I made all the haste I could 
to Dublin, and upon my arrival found to my great satis- 
faction, that he was still alive. I rapped at Mr. 
Huband's door. " John," said Thomas, " is at the door." 
I walked past the bed-side to an arm chair which stood 
between the bed and a table on which some medicine 
was placed, which he had been ordered, and part of 
which he had lately taken. I examined this medicine, 
and found that either from the mistake or inattention of 
the apothecary's boy, too large a quantity of laudanum had 
been infused, which had produced a sad effect upon my 
brother. I ordered him a repellent, which operated 
successfully in a short time. My brother was restored 



58 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OP 



to his usual state of mind. Shortly after, lifting up 
his hands, in the full triumph of faith, he exclaimed, 
" He is come ! He is come ! My Beloved is mine and 
I am his — his for ever/" and immediately expired. 
My dream I interpreted thus,' said the doctor. ' The 
dove perching upon Thomas's shoulder was his call to 
the ministry ; the green field the gospel field ; and the 
stile was death, in which I conceive I was useful to 
him by my repellent.' "* Charles Wesley vied with 
John in love for Walsh, and admiration of his char- 
acter, and on hearing of his lamented death, expressed 
his feelings in lines which even he hut rarely surpassed. 
In passing from the honoured name of Thomas Walsh, 
I cannot more appropriately close this brief notice of 
his character and worth, than by giving the reader a 
few stanzas from this grand tribute to his memory. 

Did lie not labour day and night, 

In ministerial works employed ? 
His sweet relief, his whole delight, 

To search the oracles of God ; 



* From Biographical Sketch of the late Rev. John Dinnen, in 
his own handwriting, in the possession of the author, p. 23. 
1788. 

Mr. Dinnen died between twenty and thirty years ago, in Cole- 
raine ; and this document lay in the hands of his widow, who 
gave it to me, subject to certain restrictions as to publishing- 
some parts of it, bearing on the Division of 1816. On her death, 
it was sent to me (with some letters to Mr. Dinnen from the late 
Rev. Henry Moore), by my kind friend Mrs. M'Elwain, of Cole- 
raine. I hope by and by to publish this document, with some 
illustrative notes. 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 59 



To listen at the Master's feet, 

To catch the whispers of His grace, 

And long for happiness complete, 
And gasp to see His open face ! 

Did he not triumph in the cross, 

Its prints as on his body show ; 
Lavish of life for Jesu's cause, 

Whose blood so free for him did flow ? 
He scorned his feeble flesh to spare, 

Kegardless of its swift decline ; 
His single aim, his ceaseless prayer, 

To attain the righteousness divine. 

Impatient to be truly great, 

Ambitious of a crown above, 
He coveted the highest seat, 

He asked the grace of perfect love ; 
He asked, alas ! but knew not then 

The purport of his own desire — 
How deep that cup of sacred pain, 

How searching that baptismal fire ! 

Tried to the last, but not forsook, 

But honoured with distinguished grace ; 
Heavenward he cast a dying look, 

And saw once more his Saviour's face. 
" He's come ! my well-beloved," he said, 

" And I am His, and He is mine !" 
He spoke, he gazed, he bowed his head, 

And sunk into the arms divine ! * 

In July, 1760, we find Wesley again amongst the 
Palatines, when, for the first time, he speaks of the 
ravages of emigration amongst them, to which I have 
* Jackson's Life of Rev. Charles Wesley, II. p. 145. 



60 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



already referred. In the following quotation he hears 
a testimony as to the change wrought amongst them "by 
the Gospel, which is creditable alike to them, ami to 
the noble band of men by whose instrumentality they 
" were translated out of darkness into God's marvellous 
light." " Wednesday, Jidy 9. — I rode over to Killi- 
heen, a German settlement, near twenty miles south of 
Limerick. It rained all the way, but the earnestness 
of the poor people made me quite forget it. In the 
evening I preached to another colony of Germans at 
Bally garane (Ballingran). The third is at Court- 
Mattrass (Court-Matrix), a mile from Killiheen. I 
suppose three such towns are scarce to be found again 
in England or Ireland. There is no cursing or swear- 
ing, no Sabbath-breaking, no drunkenness, no ale 
house, in any of them. Hoav will these poor foreigners 
rise up in the judgment against those that are round 
about them?"* 

In June, 1762; June, 1765; May, 1767; May, 1769; 
May, 1771; May, 1773; May, 1775, Wesley visited one 
or more of the Palatine settlements, and has recorded 
his impressions of the progress of religion amongst the 
in each instance ; but my space will not allow of 
giving his remarks in detail. During this period the 
Palatines were favoured with the ministry and labours 
of William Thompson, John Morgan, Samuel Levick, 
Barnabas Thomas, James Dempster^ Thomas Eourke, 

* Wesley's Journal, III. p. 9. 

f He subsequently went to America, and was the father of 
the late distinguished Kev. John Dbmpstee, D.D. — so well 



methodism amongst the palatines. 61 

John Hilton, Thomas Olivers, James Deavbs, George 
Story, Thomas Taylor, Eichard Bourke, John 
Mason, John Dillon, Stephen Proctor, John 
Goodwin, Peter Jaco, Francis Wrigley, and a host 
of less familiar names, all of whom were men who 
were mighty in their generation — men of renown. 
Amongst those u less familiar names" was that of 
William Collins, an early Bandon preacher, and a man 
of God, under whom " the Bandon Society was doubled 
in a twelvemonth." " Another proof," says Wesley, 
" at present, that a prophet is not without honour, 
even in his own country." 

In May, 1778, on the occasion of his seventeenth 
visit to Ireland, Wesley, "his eye not dim, or his 
natural force abated, appears again amongst the Pala- 
tines, and thought them as loving and simple-hearted 
as ever." "Thursday, May 7. — I preached once more to 
the loving, earnest, simple-hearted people of New- 
market. Two months ago, good Philip Geier (Guier) 
fell asleep, one of the Palatines that came over and 
settled in Ireland between sixty and seventy years ago. 
He was a father to this and the other German societies, 
loving and cherishing them as his own children. He 
retained all his faculties to the last, and after two days' 
illness w T ent to God." 

He also visited Kilfinnen, and under date Friday, 8, 

known in the Methodist Episcopal Church. See Lectures and 
Addresses by Eev. John Dempster, D.D. Edited by Rev. 
Davis W. Clark, D.D. (now Bishop Clark). Cincinnati: 
Poe & Hitchcock. — A remarkably fresh and thoughtful book. 



62 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



says : — " Finding the poor people at Ballygarane (Ballin- 
gran) whom I had not seen these five years, were very 
desirous to see me once more, I went over in the morn- 
ing • although the notice was exceedingly short, yet a 
large number attended "* He thought that this was a 
final visit, and he bid his friends amongst the Germans, 
and at Limerick, a fond farewell. Concerning Limerick 
he writes : — " I examined the society, and have not 
known them for many years so much alive to God, and 
I do not remember to have ever found them so loving 
before ; indeed, the whole city seemed to breathe the 
same spirit. At three in the afternoon I preached my 
farewell sermon, on 1 Cor. xiii., 13." But the worthy 
old veteran was destined to see his German and Limerick 
friends again, and yet again, before the last memorable 
parting came ! 

In May, 1787, we find him again amongst the Pala- 
tines at Kilfinnen, and never found his friends in 
Limerick so affectionate as now. 

In May, 1789, when about eighty-six years of age, 
this marvellous old man visited Ireland for the twenty- 
first and last time ! His old friends, the Germans, 
seemed to have a strange hold upon him to the very last ! 
Protracted as this chapter has been, I must give "Wesley's 
last record concerning the Germans and Limerick in 
full. "Tuesday, May 12. — I pushed on to Limerick, 
where the Eev. Mr. Ingram (one of the chaplains of the 
cathedral) gladly received me, so did Mrs. Ingram, 
and all the lovely family ; where I wanted nothing 
* Wesley's Journal, IV. p. 116. 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 63 



which, the kingdom could afford. At six the house 
would not contain the congregation. I preached on 
' There is one God,' and it seemed as if all under 
the roof were sensible of His presence." " Wednesday, 
13. — I was not well able to preach in the morning, so 
Joseph Bradford took my place. But about eleven I 
preached at Pallas, about twelve miles from Limerick. 
All the remains of the Palatine families came hither 
from Ballingarane (Ballingran), Court-Matrix, and 
Eatheal (Eathkeale), in all which places an uncommon 
flame has lately broken out, such as was never seen before. 
Many in every place have been deeply convinced, many 
converted to God, and some perfected in love. Some 
societies are doubled in number, some increased six or 
even ten-fold. All the neighbouring gentry were like- 
wise gathered together, so that no house could contain 
them j but I was obliged to stand abroad. The people, 
as it were, swallowed every word, and great was our 
rejoicing in the Lord." " Thursday, 14. — I preached 
in the morning on Eev. ii. 4, 5 ; in the evening on 
Luke iv., 18. All the . congregation were, for the 
present, much affected — with many, I trust, the im- 
pression will continue."* This is Wesley's last record 
concerning the Palatines ; he saw his German friends 
no more ! Before leaving Ireland he wrote, " This day 
I enter on my eighty-sixth year. I now find I grow 
old. 1. My sight is decayed, so that I cannot read a 
small print, unless in a strong light. 2. My strength 
is decayed, so that I walk much slower than I did some 
* Wesley's Journal, IV. p. 436. 



64 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS 



years since. 3. My memory of names, whether of 
persons or places, is decayed, till I stop a little 
to recollect them. "What I should be afraid of is, 
if I took thought for the morrow, that my body 
should weigh down my mind, and create either 
stubbornness, by the decrease of my understand- 
ing ; or peevishness, by the increase of bodily infirmi- 
ties ; but thou shalt answer for me, Lord my God."* 
The slanderers of this noble and apostolic man have 
been many ; but it is one thing to slander Wesley, it 
is another and a far more difficult thing to copy his 
bright example. Let any man, whose mind is un- 
warped by prejudice, read Wesley's Journal of his 
final visit to Ireland, and produce anything like it, if 
he can, from the pen of a man eighty-six years of age, 
within the entire range of English literature. What a 
grand pattern of faithful, devoted, self-denying labour 
he has bequeathed to the ministers who bear his 
honoured name ! I have sometimes thought, suppose 
him to have lived in our day, with the railway, the 
steam press, and the rich and varied appliances of the 
nineteenth century at his command, and who could 
possibly estimate the influence of such a life upon the 
thought and action of mankind. 

About the period of Wesley's final visit to the Pala- 
tines, the late Ebv. J ohn Dinnen was stationed on the 
Limerick Circuit, with the Eev. Jonathan Brown. I 
copy the following notice from the MS. sketch of this 
venerable minister's life and labours, before referred 
* "Wesley's Journal, IV. p. 444. 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 65 



to : — " In Limerick we found a pleasing, friendly- 
people, many of them truly devoted to God. We 
spent the year in much peace, and I believe great good 
was done in the name of the Lord. We preached 
frequently abroad, and met with much opposition from 
the mob, particularly in Garrim, famed for hostility to 
the Gospel ; and they suffered for it by some of the 
inhabitants, who espoused our cause. The Eev. Mr. 
Ingram and his friendly family treated us with much 
respect and love. One of his daughters was in our 
society. Mr. Wesley, Dr. Coke, and many of our 
friends, were kindly entertained in this family. The 
country part of the circuit was pleasant, and we had 
the satisfaction of seeing a rising work. Many of our 
members were Palatines, who were sent to the County 
Limerick by Queen Anne. They had their land free 
for some years. After a while they had the same land 
for five shillings an acre. When I travelled the circuit 
some of them paid one guinea and a half, and lived 
well, finding godliness truly profitable."* 

In July, 1789, Wesley presided for the last time in 
the Irish Conference, now composed in the main of 
Irishmen, as the great majority of the English brethren 
long since had retired from Ireland. Wesley's final 
testimony as to the Irish Conference — which then had 
in its number such familiar names as John Crook, 
Thomas Barber, Gustavus Armstrong, Samuel Wood, 
David Gordon (the spiritual father of Gideon Ouseley), 
Matthias Joyce, Matthew Stewart, William Wilson, 
* MS. Sketch of Rev. John Dinnen, p. 21. 1788. 
E 



66 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



Thomas Kidgeway, George Brown, Andrew Hamilton, 
sen., and jun.; James M'Mullen, John Malcomson, 
John and Thomas Kerr, Alex. Moore, Laurence 
Kane,* and many more — is worth transcription here : — 
" Friday, July 3. — Our little Conference began in 

* I find the following interesting notice of Laurence Kane in 
Mr. Dinnen's Autobiographical Sketch. "I found Mr. Laurence 
Kane in Cork, when I came to it, for which I was thankful. 
When I first travelled the Cork Circuit, he then lived in Youghal, 
his native place. His parents were rigid Papists, and of course 
Laurence was of their mind. He was bound to he a ship- 
carpenter; and was fond cf cock-fighting, and similar amuse- 
ments. One Sunday evening, as I was going to the Court- 
House to preach, Laurence, with some others, pelted me with 
snow-balls. He afterwards came to preaching, and was deeply 
convinced of sin. He sold his game cocks, and walked to Cork 
bare-foot to buy a Bible. He joined our society, was con- 
verted to God, and endured violent persecution from his parents, 
his mother in particular. He travelled a while in our Connexion, 
and returned to Cork to support his aged parents by keeping an 
academy. He slept with Mr. John Stuart, and spent his leisure 
hours with us with great profit. I had not seen him for twelve 
years. During that time he made great proficiency in learning 
and grace. He could read his Bible in several languages." — 
Sketch of Rev. John Dinnen, p. 45. 1797. — He subsequently 
went to America, and became a minister in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. He held a public discussion with the Rev. 
Samuel Pelton, a Calvinistic minister, at Haverstraw, Rock- 
land, New York, in April, 1821, which was published in a 12mo. 
volume, a copy of which now lies before me. He meets the 
varied sophisms of his Calvinistic opponent with considerable 
skill and effect. I have also some of his published sermons, 
which are most interesting, as showing how a converted Ro- 
manist could preach, when, by the grace of God, transformed 
into a Methodist. 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 



67 



Dublin, and ended Tuesday, 7th. On this I observe, 
I never had between forty and fifty such preachers 
together in Ireland before, all of whom, we have reason 
to hope, alive to God, and earnestly devoted to his 
service. I had much satisfaction in this Conference, 
in which, conversing with between forty and fifty 
travelling preachers, I found such a body of men as I 
hardly believed could have been found together in Ire- 
land — men of so sound experience, so deep piety, and 
so strong understanding. I am convinced they are in 
no way inferior to the English Conference, except it be 
in number."* 

Here we must part with this venerable man, and 
with this branch of my subject also.t He visited Ire- 

* Wesley's Journal, IV. p. 445. 

f It would have proved a most agreeable task to have traced 
the history of Methodism amongst the Palatines down to our 
own day, and I had collected materials for doing so. But I 
have already traced that history far beyond what was necessary 
to illustrate my subject, and going any further into detail would 
seriously increase the size and price of this book, and perhaps 
proportionately limit its circulation. 

Suffice it to say, that Graham and Ouseley frequently visited 
this interesting people, and that many prominent members of 
the Conference in more modern times have laboured amongst 
them with great success, amongst whom I may name from those 
still left with us, who connect the present generation of Irish 
preachers with the noble host who have crossed the flood — 
Thomas "VVaugh, John Nelson, John Carey, "William Eeilly, and 
Robert Masaroon— now the most veteran of our number. For 
many years past we have held an annual Field meeting amongst 
the Palatines at Adare, which is an occasion of great interest. 
I cannot say how long since this meeting was established ; 



68 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



land, as we have seen, twenty-one times, embracing 
about six years of bis public life, and tbougbt the time 
well spent. He gave to Ireland the labours of some of 
the best of his Itinerants, and, in return, Ireland gave 
to him some of the choicest spirits he had ever known ; 
and to English Methodism some of the most influential 
names that grace its history. He bestowed a vast 
amount of personal labour upon the Palatines of Irish 
birth, and in addition sent the best of his Itinerants 
among them, as (besides those already named) Samuel 
Bradburn, Eichard Boardman, Joseph Pilmoor, 
Thomas Wride, Thomas Davis, Eichard Watkinson, 
Daniel Jackson, and Andrew Delap, — to name no 
more ; and those Irish Palatines, in the mysterious pro- 
vidence of God, laid the foundation of the mighty 
fabric of American Methodism — the grandest develop- 
ment of Christianity since Apostolic times — and then- 
sons and daughters have consolidated the rising fabric 
of Methodism in many parts of the world ; — thus 
impressively verifying his own prophetic statement — 
" Have patience, and Ireland will repay you." 

but a sermon on The Redeemer's Elevation and Attraction, 
preached at this meeting on June 24, 1833, by the late Eev. 
William Stewart, now lies before me ; and this meeting was 
an institution then of many years' standing. 

I cannot soon forget one of these occasions, about ten years 
ago, when it fell to my lot to preach in connection with the 
Eev. "William Gather and the Eev. Thomas C. Laurence, now of 
Australia. I am not sure that I have enjoyed a service more 
since. 

Since the above was in type, the following came to hand from 



METHODISM AMONGST THE PALATINES. 69 



the venerable and Kev. Thomas "Waugh, now the Father of the 
Irish Conference ; giving an account of his first visit to the 
Palatines nearly sixty years ago : — 

"It was impossible to visit the Palatine settlements, in my 
early day, without being deeply interested. It is almost sixty 
years since I first spent a night with them, on my way to 
Kerry. I was kindly received by the Burgomaster ; but, 
having rested a little, and been refreshed, he said, ' You must 
preach for us.' I pleaded weariness, having had a long and 
fatiguing journey, but was told that no preacher, passing 
through, was excused from giving them a sermon. I urged 
that there had been no notice given, and, of course, there could 
have been no expectation of such thing, and could not have a 
congregation. ' Well, ' said he, 4 You shall see ; please come 
with me.' I accompanied him to where the little preaching- 
house occupied the centre of a green, skirted by cottages, into 
one of which he requested me to enter, visit and pray with 
a sick sister, and then all would be ready. He opened the 
chapel door, from above it drew out a cow's horn, put it to his 
mouth, and made the vallies ring. On hearing it, every man 
dropped his spade, suspended his agricultural employment, 
and obeying the well-known signal, hastened to the house of 
worship ; so that, on my coming out from my patient, I found 
the preaching-house furnished with a serious, praying congre- 
gation, and delivered to them my Master's message. Some of 
the early settlers, I should think, were the very old men of that 
day, for their German accent still clung to them. On quitting 
one house the patriarch squeezed my hand most affectionately, 
saying, ' Got pless you, my tear young man/' " 




ffi. 

f fjtltp OPmirars aittr Jlrs. leek 



" It is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to create them- 
selves, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their solitary 
and irresistible way through a thousand obstacles. Nature seems to delight 
in disappointing the assiduities of art, with which it would rear dulness to 
maturity, and to glory in the vigour and luxuriance of her chance produc- 
tions. She scatters the seeds of genius to the winds, and though some 
may perish among the stony places of the world, and some may be choked 
by the thorns and brambles of early adversity, yet others will now and 
then strike root in the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up into sunshine, 
and spread over their sterile birth-place all the beauties of vegetation." — 

"Washington Irving. 



CHAPTEE III. 



IP? 



<&mhm% attir iprs* J&tk 



EMBURY AND HIS PARTY LEAVING FOR AMERICA — PARTING 
SCENE A HUNDRED AND SIX TEARS AGO— BALLINGRAN — 
METHODIST CHURCH — RUINS OF EMBURY'S HOUSE — MRS. 
HECK'S HOUSE, AND OLD MRS. RUCKLE — EMBURY'S BIRTH — 
EDUCATION — APPRENTICED TO A CARPENTER — CONVERSION- 
APPOINTED A LEADER AND LOCAL PREACHER — HIS SERVICES 
IN CONNECTION WITH THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH AT 
COURT-MATRIX — WESLEY PREACHING AT BALLINGRAN IN 
1756 — CONFERENCE AT LIMERICK IN 1758— EMBURY AND 
WILLIAM THOMPSON RECOMMENDED FOR OUR ITINERANCY 
— CHARACTER OF THOMPSON — EMBURY'S MARRIAGE IN 
NOVEMBER, 1758 — PAUL HECK AND BARBARA HIS WIFE — 
EMIGRATION OF EMBURY, PAUL AND BARBARA HECK, AND 
OTHERS TO NEW YORK IN 1760. 

IT is now just one hundred and six years since one 
summer's morning a group of emigrants might have 
been seen at the Custom-house Quay, Limerick, prepar- 
ing to embark for America. At that time emigration 
was not so common an occurrence as it is now, and the 
excitement connected with their departure was intense. 
They were Palatines, from Ballingran, and were accom- 
panied to the vessel side by crowds of their companions 
and friends, some of whom had come sixteen miles to 



74 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK 



say farewell for the last time. By a very slight effort 
of imagination you can vividly recall the scene. One 
of those about to leave — a young man, with a thought- 
ful look and resolute bearing — is evidently the leader of 
the party, and more than an ordinary pang is felt by 
many as they bid him farewell. He had been amongst 
the first-fruits of his countrymen to Christ, had been 
the leader of the infant church, and in their humble 
little sanctuary had often ministered to them the Word 
of Life. He is surrounded by his spiritual children and 
friends, who are anxious to have some parting words of 
counsel and instruction. He enters the vessel, and from 
its side once more breaks amongst them the bread of 
Life. And now the last prayer is offered ; they embrace 
each other ; the vessel begins to move. As she recedes, 
uplifted hands, and, better still, uplifted hearts, attest 
what all felt. But none of all that vast multitude felt 
more, probably, than that young man. His name is 
Philip Embury. His party consisted of his wife, Mary 
Switzer, to whom he had been married in Eathkeale 
Church about a year and a-half before, two of his 
brothers and their families, Peter Switzer, probably 
brother to his wife, Paul Heck, and Barbara his wife, 
Valer Tettler, Philip Morgan, and a family of the 
Dulmages. The vessel arrived safely in New York on 
the 10th of August, 1760. Who that pictures to his 
mind that first band of Christian emigrants leaving the 
Irish shore but must be struck with the simple beauty 
of the scene? Yet who amongst the crowd that saw 
them leave, or the thousands whose eye will fall upon 



AT BALLINGRAN. 



75 



this sheet, could have thought that two of that little 
band were destined, in the mysterious providence of 
God, to influence for good, countless myriads of Adam's 
children, and that their names should live long as the 
sun and moon endure 1 ? Yet so it was. That vessel 
contained Philip Embury, the first leader and Local 
Preacher on the vast American Continent ; and Barbara 
Heck, "a mother in Israel," one of its first members — 
the germ from which, in the good providence of God, 
has sprung the Methodist Episcopal Church of the 
United States — a church which has now more or less 
under its influence about eight millions of the germi- 
nant mind of that new and teeming hemisphere ! "There 
shall be an handful of corn upon the top of the moun- 
tain, the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and 
they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth." 
If the reader and I had stood by the side of Bruce as he 
discovered the source of the Mle, we would have stooped, 
and exultingly have drank with him of the virgin 
stream; and as we gazed upon the tiny rivulet, gurgling 
from the bosom of the rock, and thought upon the noble 
river which gave life and fertility to Egypt, as taking 
its rise in this tiny stream, we would have felt a throb 
of mysterious joy. But we may feel a joy deeper and 
holier far, as we gaze upon the vast and ever-growing 
Methodist Episcopal Church of America, and trace the 
origin of that noble and fertilizing stream to the soil 
of old Ireland, and to the infant Methodist Church at 
Ballingran. 

Ballingran is not a bewitching place. It is situated 



76 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK 



about two miles from Bathkeale, and sixteen from 
Limerick. In its immediate neighbourhood are Killi- 
heen and the other Palatine settlements, already named. 
It was on a fine summer's day, about ten years ago, when 
my eye first rested upon it, and though nothing was 
further from my mind at that time than the idea of ever 
writing a line about it, yet I have a vivid impression of 
the emotions which filled my bosom as I thought 
of the far-reaching influence this little village was 
exerting now, and was destined to exert to the end of 
time. 

The village has between two and three hundred 
inhabitants, about one third of whom are Methodists, 
who worship statedly in a little church which is in the 
centre of the settlement. The houses are, for the most 
part, good comfortable cottages, with a healthy, cleanly 
"well to do" air, which, alas! is not too common in 
Ireland. The village is irregularly built, and this 
somewhat lessens its picturesque effect; still, the general 
impression left upon the mind is truly pleasing. 

Yonder is the little Methodist Church: let us look at 
it first. It stands in a small square, detached, and is 
surrounded by a neat wall. There is a little grass plot in 
front, and the general external appearance is pretty fair. 
But what of the inside 1 When I saw it first, this was 
still better — neat, chaste, simple — a church after J ohn 
Wesley's own heart. I am sorry to say that time and 
damp have told most seriously upon it within the last 
few years, and it is now sadly in want of thorough 
repair. Why should not our friends in the neighbour- 



AT BALLINGRAN. 



77 



hood raise as mucli as would repair and beautify this 
little church, the site of which is truly admirable, and 
at the same time, erect a tablet to the memory of .Philip 
Embury and Barbara Heck, in this the Centenary year 
of American Methodism? And there is Embury's 
house ! or rather the remains of it, for the roof and part 
of the walls are gone. Still, enough of it remained to 
form a clear conception of what it was when Philip and 
his young wife formed the attraction of its fire-side. 
It was a good comfortable cottage, beyond the average 
of respectable Irish farm houses, and remarkably well 
situated. I was shown a little room, which was Philip's 
room — his closet — where he often poured out his heart 
to God, after his hard day's work, for directions in re- 
lation to his sermon for the following Sabbath; and on 
this spot, no doubt, he sought a wisdom higher than 
his own in relation to the great event of his life — his 
emigration to the far West. What a spot for thought, 
and for prayer too! How little a man can know of 
what is the life work which his great Father in heaven 
has prepared for him ! I found a beautiful lilac tree in 
full bloom growing in the centre of the house, in im- 
pressive contrast with the ruin and desolation of the 
house itself. I cut two slips and planted them in our 
minister's garden. I am happy to say that they have 
thriven and expanded in a style worthy of the name of 
Embury. I went to see the house more recently, after 
I had formed the resolution to publish this little book. 
Time has wrought sad changes within the last few years ; 
little now is left but part of one wall, and of one of the 



78 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK 



gables. Speedily, Embury's house will be amongst the 
things that were. But the name and life work of 
Embury will bid defiance even to the iron tooth of 
time ! They will be dear to the heart of unborn millions 
from age to age, long as time shall last. 

Mrs. Heck's house has shared better fortune. It is still 
standing in venerable age, apparently with sufficient 
constitutional stamina to be an ornament and prominent 
attraction of Ballingran for many years to come. When 
I saw it first, old Mrs. Barbara Euckle (connected by 
marriage with Mrs. Heck) lived in it, and a grand old 
woman she was as I have met with since. When I saw 
it last she was gone to join her kindred in the house 
above. She had so much individuality of character 
that she stands out alone before my mind, in many re- 
spects unlike any one else whom I have ever known. 
She bore Mrs. Heck's honoured name, Barbara Euckle; 
lived in her house, and caught her mantle too ! I fancy 
that Mrs. Heck was just such another woman. 

Mrs. Heck's maiden name was Barbara Buckle. Her 
father, Sebastan Buckle, lived and died in this house, 
and here "the elect lady" of American Methodism was 
born ! On the occasion of her marriage with Mr. Paul 
Heck, she removed to his house, which stood not very 
far from our little church, and every trace of whch has 
long since passed away. There is nothing very parti- 
cular about Mrs. Heck's house. It is an ordinary com- 
fortable cottage, with a nice garden before the door. 
It will interest many in America to know that the 
Methodist ministers are still hospitably entertained in 



AT BALLINGRAN. 



79 



the house which was the birth-place of Barbara 
Heck. 

Philip Embury was born in Ballingran in the latter 
end of the year 1728. There is a family record which 
says that he was baptized September 29, 1728. He 
had several brothers, all of whom ultimately found 
a home and a grave in America, He was educated 
under the care of good Philip Guier, and was subse- 
quently sent to an English school, probably at Eath- 
keale. After leaving school, he was bound apprentice 
to a carpenter at Ballingran, and was by repute a good 
tradesman. He grew up without religion, and it is 
impossible to tell either winch of Wesley's Itinerants 
he first heard preach, or the circumstances which led to 
his conversion. It is probable that he heard Mr. 
Wesley on the occasion of his visit to Eimerick, in 
August, 1752 ; and there is a tradition in his family, 
to the effect that he always traced his conversion to a 
sermon which he heard from Wesley. Be this as it 
may, the evidence of his conversion is clear as the noon 
day sun. A small book, in the possession of his 
family, has the following interesting entry, in his own 
handwriting : — " On Christmas Day, being Monday, 
ye 25th of December, in the year 1752, the Lord 
shone into my soul by a glimpse of his redeeming love, 
being an earnest of my redemption in Christ Jesus, 
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. — 
Phil. Embury." He was shortly after appointed a 
leader, and was eminently consistent and faithful. 
Within a brief period he became a Local Preacher, and, 



80 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK 



with good Philip Guier, was generally recognized as a 
kind of pastor of the Palatines. 

The first Methodist church amongst the Palatines 
was built at Court-Matrix. It owed a good deal to the 
exertions of Embury. The Switzers, who were relatives 
of Embury, lived at Court-Matrix, and the presumption 
is that he lodged with them during the period in which 
he worked at the church. Be this as it may, an inte- 
resting member of their family circle exerted a mar- 
vellous influence over Embury, which ultimately deter- 
mined the sphere of his life work. It is probable that 
the principal portion of the timber work in connec- 
tion with the first church amongst the Palatines was 
done by Embury's own hand, as in the case of " the 
cradle of American Methodism." We have no record 
of the opening services of this church, but Embury 
preached in it repeatedly. The Ballingran church was 
not built for more than thirty years after Embury's 
emigration.* 

As we have already seen, Wesley preached in Bal- 
lingran for the first time in June, 1756, and pro- 

* This church at Court-Matrix is principally interesting, as 
having been put up in good part by Embury's own hands, and 
also from the fact, that in it Wesley and all the veteran Itine- 
rants of the early day ministered the word of life. It is sinking 
fast to ruin now, and should be repaired and turned into a 
Methodist School-house, and a new church, commemorative of 
Embury, erected on a site which would command Kathkeale, 
Killiheen, and Court-Matrix. Such a church might be built 
for from £500 to £700, and would prove a lasting blessing to 
this entire district of country. 



AT BALLINGRAN. 



81 



bably not far from the house of Embury and of Mrs. 
Heck. Philip had now preached locally for some time, 
and with considerable acceptance. Doubtless, Wesley 
and he met on this occasion, and it is far from impro- 
bable conversed on the subject of Embury's joining the 
heroic band who formed the Itinerancy of that day. 

In 1758, on the occasion of Wesley's seventh visit to 
Ireland, he held a Conference for the second time, in 
Limerick. The solemn shade of death seemed to over- 
hang Walsh, and Wesley's heart was sad. At this Con- 
ference, amongst those recommended for our Itinerancy, 
were Philip Embury, of Ballingran, and William 
Thompson, of Ballinamallard, near Enniskillen. In 
the notes of the proceedings of the British Conference, 
of August 12th, 1758, as found in the last edition of the 
English " Minutes,"* in answer to the question, "Who 
are now proposed for travelling preachers?" we have the 
following names: William Harwood, William Thomp- 
son, Philip Embury, John Furz, and ten more. Some 
of them, as William Thompson and John Eurz, were 
then appointed to a Circuit, and the remainder, doubtless 
including Embury, were placed on Wesley's list of 
reserve ; many of whom subsequently went out to travel. 

William Thompson became one of the leading spirits 
of the Connexion, and had perhaps more to do with 
moulding the ecclesiastical framework of Methodism, 
than any other man that could be named. Mr. At- 
more, speaking of him, says, "Mr. Thompson was a man 

* Edited by the late Rev. William L. Thornton, M.A., p. 712. 
1862. 

F 



82 



PHILIP EMBUET AND MRS. HECK 



of remarkably strong sense, a fertile genius, a clear un- 
derstanding, a quick discernment, a retentive memory, 
and a sound judgment. His mind, naturally endowed 
with, strong parts, was greatly improved by reading and 
close thinking, so that as a minister, he was a workman 
who needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word 
of truth." 

" He was supposed by many to be one of the closest 
reasoners and most able speakers that ever sat in the 
Methodist Conference. After the death of Mr. Wesley, 
he took a very active part in the affairs of the Con- 
nexion ; and the outlines of the present form of govern- 
ment originated principally with him. The Conference 
showed in what light they viewed him, by choosing 
him for their first President, after the decease of the 
Eev. John Wesley, in the year 1791." He travelled 
several years in Ireland, and died at Birmingham, May 
1, 1799. "On the day of his interment," Mr, Atmore 
says, " his body was carried into the chapel in Cherry 
Street, Birmingham, and solemnly laid before the pulpit 
during the time of service. Mr. Bradburn addressed a 
crowded audience on the occasion, from the words of 
David, respecting Abner (2 Sam., iii. 38), ' Know ye 
not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this 
day in Israel?' The preachers in the Birmingham Dis- 
trict were the supporters of the pall, and the funeral was 
attended by the greatest number of people ever remem- 
bered, on such an occasion, in Birmingham before."* 

Embury, as we have seen, was not amongst those 

* Atmore's Methodist Memorial, p. 420-22. See also Dr. 
Bunting's Life, p. 81. 



AT BALLINGRAN. 



83 



who were appointed to a Circuit at this Conference, but 
was placed on the list of reserve, to be called out as a 
vacancy might arise. I have already hinted that he 
had a tender feeling for a relative of his own, Miss 
Mary Switzer, of Court-Matrix ; and the presumption 
is, that, not being amongst those now appointed to 
a Circuit, he resolved to get married, and preach 
locally, like his friend, Philip Guier. Accordingly, he 
got married to Miss Switzer, in Eathkeale Church, 
in November, 1758, and thus abandoned the idea of 
joining the noble and self-denying band of men who 
formed the Itinerancy of that day in Ireland. It is 
more than probable that, had Embury been appointed 
to a Circuit at that Conference, America would never 
have recognized in his honoured name the founder of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. But Providence had 
a grand life-work for him to do in another land, far 
distant from the land of his birth, and right nobly and 
manfully he did it. 

I think it likely that, at the time of his marriage, 
Embury had no idea of emigrating, but that his inten- 
tion was to remain in Ballingran, and preach from 
Sabbath to Sabbath as usual, supporting himself and 
family by his farm and his daily work as a carpenter. 
About the year 1760, as we have already seen, there 
was a considerable increase in the rents on Lord South- 
well's estate, which issued in the emigration of many of 
the Palatines, and which, with the prospect of a young, 
rising fami]y, led him to decide on seeking a home in 
the New World, whither many of his kindred from 
Germany had already gone. 



84 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK, ETC. 

There were two or more families of the name of 
Heck at BaHingran, all of whom ultimately found a 
home in America, where one family, at least, took 
the name of Hick. Paul Heck was a Methodist in 
Ballingran, where he married Barbara Euckle, whose 
family also lived in Ballingran. He resolved to join 
Embury's party, and, with his wife, together with 
several other families, left Limerick in the summer of 
1760, and arrived with Embury in JSTew York in the 
month of August, as stated above. 

Wesley, as we have seen, visited Ballingran again in 
1760. But what a sad change within the brief space 
of two years ! Philip Embury, the beloved and faithful 
preacher, was gone. Paul Heck and his noble wife 
were gone. Many families — the hope of the infant 
church of Ballingran — were also gone. As he thought 
upon the desolation and loneliness of Ballingran, he 
wrote indignantly in his Journal : — " But the poor 
settlers, with all their diligence and frugality, could 
not procure even the coarsest food to eat, and the 
meanest raiment to put on,, under their merciful land- 
lords ; so that most of these, as well as those at Balli- 
garane (Ballingran), have been forced to seek bread in 
other places ; some of them in distant parts of Ireland, 
but the greater part in America."* But could Wesley 
have seen, in the distance, the Methodist Episcopal 
Church of the United States as the offspring of the 
present desolation, what a rainbow of hope would have 
glittered on the breast of the dark cloud that now over- 
hung Ballingran ! 

* Wesley's Journal, ILL p. 10. (1760.) 



ilitltp Oftrttottg mttr leek. 

bright of Priljoirbm m Htfo gotft. 



" Land where the bones of our fathers are sleeping, 
Land where our dear ones and fond ones are weeping, 
Land where the light of Jehovah is shining, 
We leave thee lamenting, bnt not with repining. 

" Land of our fathers, in grief we forsake thee, 
Land of our friends, may Jehovah protect thee, 
Land of the Church, may the light shine around thee, 
Nor darkness, nor trouble, nor sorrow confound thee. 

" God is thy God: thou shalt walk in His brightness. 
Gird thee with joy, let thy robes be of whiteness ; 
God is thy God ! let thy hills shout for gladness ; 
But ah ! we must leave thee— we leave thee in sadness. 

" Dark is our path o'er the dark rolling ocean ; 
Dark are our hearts ; but the fire of devotion 
Kindles within : — and a far distant nation 
Shall learn from our hps the glad song of salvation. 

" Hail to the land of our toils and our sorrows ! 
Land of our rest .'—when a few more to-morrows 
Pass o'er our heads, we will seek our cold pillows, 
And rest in our graves, far away o'er the billows." 

—Christian Emigrants' Farewell. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



PROBABLE CAUSES OF EMBURY'S SILENCE FOB, SIX YEARS IN 
NEW YORK — WORSHIPPED WITH THE LUTHERANS — DEATH OF 
TWO OF HIS CHILDREN — ARRIVAL OF SECOND PARTY OF 
IRISH PALATINES IN 1765 — MRS. HECK AND THE CARD- 
PLAYERS — PROOF THAT EMBURY WAS NOT PRESENT — FULL 
REFUTATION OF THIS SLANDER — EMBURY'S FIRST SERMON 
AND THE ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN AMERICA — HIS OWN 
HIRED HOUSE — REMOVAL OF THE LITTLE CHURCH TO THE 
"UPPER ROOM" IN BARRACK STREET — EARLY MEMBERS OF 
THE CHURCH — REMOVAL TO THE "RIGGING LOFT" IN 1767 — 
ARRIVAL OF CHARLES WHITE AND RICHARD SAUSE FROM 
DUBLIN — CAPTAIN WEBB, HIS PREACHING AND SUCCESS. 

TTTE have seen that Pliilip Embury and his party, 
" " including Paul and Barbara Heck, arrived in New 
York in August, 1760. The presumption is, that Em- 
bury attempted some religious service shortly after 
landing ; but, being constitutionally timid and retiring, 
and meeting with little or no encouragement, and hav- 
ing no suitable place in which to conduct the services, 
he abandoned the idea of attempting any public ser- 
vices, at least for the present. It is probable that in a 
new and strange land he found it increasingly difficult 
to support his wife and young family, and that this was 



88 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK. 



not without its influence in his ultimate decision. It 
is also fair to assume that the Irish emigrants were 
located in various parts of the city, so that the difficulty 
of getting even a few of them together may have heen 
very considerable. He joined the Lutherans, and we 
have the testimony of his son, Mr. Samuel Embury, 
that he never abandoned the practice of family worship. 
During the period in which Embury's " talent lay hid 
in a napkin" several of his children were born, who 
were baptized amongst the Lutherans. Two of these 
died in infancy — Catherine Elizabeth, his first-born, 
aged two years ; and J ohn Albert, aged three. 

In August, 1765, a second party of Palatine emi- 
grants arrived in New York, from Ballingran and the 
neighbourhood. Amongst them were Paul Ruckle, 
Luke Rose, Jacob Hick, Peter Barkman, Henry 
Williams, and their families. Mr. Ruckle was related 
to Embury, and brother to Barbara Heck, who, as we 
have seen, with her husband, Paul Heck, had accom- 
panied Embury in 1760. Jacob Hick and his wife 
had been Methodists in Ireland, and were amongst 
the earliest friends of the infant Methodist Church 
in New York. I take Jacob Hick to have been the 
founder of the Hick family, mentioned in the " Old 
Book," and the ancestor of John Paul Hick, so 
frequently mentioned in Wakeley's Lost Chapters. 
His wife, doubtless, was an excellent woman, and 
amongst the earliest friends of Methodism in New York; 
but she is not to be confounded with Barbara Heck, 
"the heroine of American Methodism," as in my judg- 



ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN NEW YORK. 89 

ment the Eev. J. B. Wakeley has done in his beautiful 
book. Jacob Hick, his wife, and family, lived and 
died in New York ; whereas, Paul Heck and Barbara 
his w T ife, went with Embury from New York to Salem, 
in 1770, and ultimately were connected with the first 
class in Canada, where they died; having had the 
honour of being identified with the origin of Methodism 
both in the United States and in Canada, as I shall 
show by and by. 

Many of the Palatines who accompanied Embury and 
Barbara Heck from Ireland, had by this time lost even 
the form of godliness, and had become adepts at card 
playing and other sinful amusements. Several of those 
who accompanied Paul Buckle had but little respect for 
religion, and in the evenings, when both parties met 
after the day's labour, card-playing formed the staple 
amusement. There is not the slightest shadow of 
evidence that Embury ever played with them, or even 
witnessed them playing. One evening in the autumn 
of 1766, a large company were assembled playing 
cards as usual, when Barbara Heck came in, and 
burning with indignation, she hastily seized the 
cards, and throwing them into the fire, administered 
a scathing rebuke to all the parties concerned. She 
then went to Embury's house, and told him what she 
saw, and what she had done, adding, with great earnest- 
ness, " Philip, you must preach to us, or we shall all go 
to hell, and God will require our blood at your hands /" 
Philip attempted a defence by saying, "How can I 
preach, as I have neither house nor congregation?" 



90 



PHTLIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK. 



"Preach," said this noble woman, "in your own house, 
and to your own company." Before she left, she pre- 
vailed on Philip to resolve to make the attempt, and 
within a few days, Embury preached the first Methodist 
sermon in New York, in his own hired house, to a con- 
gregation of five persons.* Such was the origin of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States — now 
the largest and most influential Church in the great 
American Continent. " Who hath despised the day of 
small things." 

As Embury has been charged both in America and 
on our side of the Atlantic with being one of the party 
playing cards when Mrs. Heck addressed him, this is 
the proper place to examine the charge, and prove that 
it is utterly without foundation. So far as I know, 
this charge was first published by the late Eev. Dr. 
Bangs, in his History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He published it on the authority of a gentleman in New 
York, who claimed to be the grandson of Mrs. Barbara 
Heck ; but, on thorough examination, this gentleman's 
grandmother was proved to have been a very different 
person from Mrs. Barbara Heck, and his version of the 
circumstances are completely at issue with the facts of 
the case, as detailed by the representatives of Mrs. 

* The names of the first Methodist congregation in America 
are worth transcribing here : — Barbara and Paul Heck, John 
Lawrence (afterwards married to Mrs. Embury), Mrs. Embury, 
and "Betty," an African servant: — thus impressively fore- 
shadowing Methodism as the church of black and white, bond 
and free. 



ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN NEW YORK. 91 

Heck and Philip Embury. The latter, with one eon- 
sent, assert that Embury was not present, and this has 
ever been the tradition in both their families. This 
gentleman, who is, doubtless, a good man, relied upon 
tradition for his relationship to Mrs. Heck, the heroine 
of American Methodism ; but tradition failed to sustain 
his claim, and the most distinguished advocates of that 
claim had to bow to the overwhelming evidence on the 
other side, and were forced to admit that it could not 
be sustained. And could any sensible man receive a 
serious slander against Embury resting on no better 
foundation than this ? If the tradition failed on the 
main issue — the question of relationship to Barbara 
Heck — does not the entire evidence of the witness fall 
to the ground 1 

The following is Dr. Eangs's account, as found in his 
History: — ^'Philip Embury, and a batch of emigrant 
Methodists from Ireland, had so far given up their pro- 
fession as to become card-players, when another family 
arrived from Ireland, amongst whom was ' a mother in 
Israel,' to whose zeal in the cause of God they were all 
indebted for the revival of the spirit of piety among 
them. Soon after their arrival, this good woman ascer- 
tained that those who had preceded her had so far 
departed from their ' first love ' as to be mingling in 
the frivolities and sinful amusements of life. The 
knowledge of this painful fact aroused her indignation ; 
and, with a zeal which deserves commendation, she 
suddenly entered the room where they were assembled, 
seized the pack of cards with which they were playing, 



92 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK. 



and threw them into the fire. Addressing Embury, 
she said, ' You must preach to us, or we shall all go to 
hell together, and God will require our blood at your 
hands.'"* Dr. Porter and others in America, and Dr. 
Dixon, Dr. George Smith, and others in England, have 
copied Dr. Bangs's account, and thus it has obtained 
currency in England and America. 

On this statement of Dr. Bangs, I beg to offer two 
or three remarks : — 

1. It will be borne in mind that we have no evidence 
against Embury but this extract, and the person who 
supplied it to Dr. Bangs, supposed himself to be the 
grandson of Mrs. Heck, the elect lady in question — a 
claim which, when thoroughly sifted by the Eev. John 
Carroll, of Canada, t fell to the ground, and the entire 
story falls with his claim. 

2. Dr. Bangs himself, published an account identical 
substantially with ours, which he received from some 
of the aged Methodists in New York, between forty and 
fifty years ago, which is worth transcription here. 
"Having thus destroyed their playthings, she ivent to 
Mr. Embury, the local preacher, and prostrated herself 
before him, entreated him with tears to call a meeting 
and preach to them, enforcing her entreaties by admon- 
ishing him, that unless he complied the people would 
go to hell, and that God would require their blood at 
his hands.".]; 

* Dr. Bangs's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, I. 47. 
f See Carroll's Correspondence with Wakeley, in Toronto 
Christian Guardian for 1859. 
X Dr. Bangs in American Methodist Magazine, 1823, p. 381. 



ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN NEW YORK. 93 

3. We have the evidence of the Eev. Abraham 
Biniger, a Moravian Minister who accompanied Embury 
to Canada, and who ultimately laid him in his grave. 
He stated most distinctly that Embury was not present, 
but that he was at home, and that there the mother of 
American Methodism went and expostulated with him.* 

4. The following most important letter from the 
Rev. William M. Chipp, of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, to the Eev. J. B. Wakeley, must set this 
slander for ever at rest : — " In the winter of 1846, by 
invitation, I accompanied a number of English Wes- 
leyans in a missionary tour in the southern section of 
Canada East. In the course of the week we came to 
Philipsburgh, a town not far from the northern line of 
Vermont. I was requested, by several of these English 
ministers, in the remarks I might offer that evening, to 
refer to the introduction of Methodism into the United 
States. In complying with that request, I mentioned 
the name of Philip Embury. That moment the chair- 
man arose, and desired me to pause for a moment, re- 
marking, ' The son of Philip Embury is in the house.' 
He requested Mr. Embury to come upon the platform, 
and he did so. I was introduced to him in that public 
manner. ... I proceeded to speak of Philip 
Embury's agency in introducing Methodism in America. 
In referring to the party of card-players, I spoke of 
Mr. Embury as being present, and the rebuke that 
Mrs. Heck administered to him. At that time I sup- 
posed that the commonly-received account was the true 
one. A few weeks after this meeting, the Eev. John 

* "Wakeley's Lost Chapters. 



94 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK. 



B. Shelley, of the British Conference, at that time 
labouring in Canada, visited me at St. Albans, Vermont, 
when I was stationed there, and informed me that the 
son of Embury complained that I had innocently done 
injustice to the memory of his father in my address at 
Philipsburgh, and that the commonly-received version 
was not correct. Mr. Shelley said also that Mr. 
Embury's son had requested him to inform me that he 
had frequently heard Ms father converse on the subject, 
and his account of it was as follows : — £ Mrs. Heck 
went one evening to a neighbour's house, and found 
a company engaged in playing cards. Philip Embury 
was not present. Some of those present had been 
Methodists in Ireland. Mrs. Heck administered to 
them a reproof, and threw the cards away. She then 
went to Mr. Embury's house, and found him alone. 
She entreated him with tears to preach to the people, 
and said, "We shall all go to hell together, and God 
will require our blood at your hands." At first he 
declined, but finally consented, and in the course of 
the week preached his first sermon in America to five 
persons in his own house.' Mr. Shelley further in- 
formed me, on the authority of Philip Embury's son, 
that his father always maintained a regard for reli- 
gious things, and kept up the worship of God in his 
family. I have most implicit confidence in the state 
ment that Philip Embury's son made to me through 
Mr. Shelley." 

Can anything be more conclusive than this important 
document 1 Mr. Samuel Embury was the first Metho- 



ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN NEW YORK. 



95 



dist Class Leader in Canada, and Mrs. Heck was a 
member in that first class. I think that I may regard 
this question as finally set at rest. The slander should 
be forthwith expunged from every Methodist book on 
both sides of the Atlantic, and every Methodist should 
indignantly repudiate it, and challenge the proof.* 
Until I see a conclusive reply to the above, I shall 
regard this sheet as having wiped off a foul stain 
from the honoured name and memory of Philip 
Embury. 

Embury's first sermon was, as we have seen, preached 
in his own hired house, to a congregation of five persons, 
and, so far as I can ascertain, in October, 1766. The 
house stood in Barrack Street, now Park Place, !New 
York. It was an humble cottage, with a single window 
in front, but neat and comfortable. This was the first 
Methodist Meeting-house in America, and here the first 
class met Sabbath after Sabbath. What a hallowed 
and memorable spot ! I have stood in the humble, 
time-honoured dwelling in which the illustrious Bard 
of Avon was born. I have played when a child, and 
mused in riper years, along the banks of the Boyne, at 
the spot wmere King William, of "immortal memory," 

* Airs. Heck sent a letter from New York to a friend in Ballin- 
gran, in which she gave an account of the transaction identical 
with tke above. This letter was preserved for many years, and 
old Mrs. Buckle told me she had often read it, and had it in her 
possession for a long time. It was subsequently taken to 
America by Mr. Christopher Ruckle., who emigrated some years 
since, and settled, I think, in the State of Ohio. 



96 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK. 



routed the Popish, army and secured for us and our 
children a Protestant Constitution and Government; and 
have gazed on many another classic spot in Old England, 
Scotland, and Ireland; but I question whether any 
other spot would have the same charms for me as the 
humble cottage in which Philip Embury of Ballingran 
first preached the Gospel in New York. The house is 
long since demolished, but a good picture of it has been 
preserved, from which our engraving is taken. It is 
impossible to look on it without deep interest. 

In a short time the congregation so increased under 
the faithful ministry of Embury, that it was found 
necessary to obtain a larger room ; and, accordingly, 
the infant Church hired a large "upper room" in 
Barrack Street, about ten doors from the barracks, 
now called Augusta Street. " Here," says Peter Parks, 
of New York, " a great excitement took place 
among the people; many were awakened and some 
converted. Among them that were converted was 
my grandmother, Catherine Taylor, and my mother 
Mary Parks. At this time Mr. Embury formed a 
class of all the members then in society, which was 
twelve. There were three musicians belonging to the 
sixteenth regiment of the British troops, then stationed 
in the barracks in Barrack Street. Their names were 
James Hodge, Addison Low, and John Buckley : they 
were exhorters, and assisted Mr. Embury in the meet- 
ings. There were some souls got awakened and con- 
verted in the poor-house. Mrs. Deverick was one, and, 
through her instrumentality, Mr. Embury was called to 



ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN NEW YORK. 



97 



preach in the poor-house. By this means, the master 
of the poor-house, Billy Littlewood, was awakened and 
converted."* Thus " mightily grew the Word of the 
Lord and prevailed;" so that, early in 1767, we find 
that the little church had outgrown " the Upper Room," 
the second Methodist preaching place in JSTew York, 
and had hired the far-famed " Eigging Loft," in Horse 
and Cart Street, now called William Street, and not far 
from John Street, so noted in American Methodism. 
This loft was long and narrow, sixty feet hy eighteen. 
Here they erected a desk and benches, and here Embury- 
preached on Sabbath mornings at six o'clock, and on 
Sabbath evenings, and, after a time, on Thursday even- 
ings also. About this time Charles White and 
Richard Sause, who were both Methodists in Dublin, 
arrived from Ireland, and proved an important accession 
to the rising church. Both were pretty well off in the 
world, and nobly identified themselves with the inte- 
rests of the little church worshipping in the " Rigging 
Loft." They were liberal contributors to John Street 
Chapel — " The Cradle of American Methodism" — and 
earned for themselves an enduring renown by being 
amongst the first trustees of Methodist property in 
America, as we shall see by and by. 

When the little church had been worshipping for 
about three months in the " Rigging Loft," one Sab- 
bath evening a strange-looking military gentleman 
appeared amongst them. He was dressed as an officer, 

* From a document found among the manuscripts of the late 
Rev. Ezekiel Cooper. 
G 



98 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK. 



in full regimentals, and had lost one of his eyes 
at the siege of Loiiisburgh. He wore a green shade 
over the eye, and his appearance cansed general ex- 
citement and inquiry. The fears of the little church 
speedily gave place to great joy on learning that 
he was a Methodist, who had been converted, under 
Wesley, at Bristol, some three years before ; that he 
was now barrack-master at Albany; and, best of all, 
that he was a Local Preacher, who would assist Embury 
in ministering to the infant church the "Word of Life. 
His name was Captain Webb — a name second only to 
that of Embury in the history of the planting of 
American Methodism. He preached in his regimentals, 
his trusty sword lying on the desk, and drew vast 
crowds. His word was attended with uncommon 
power. " The sword of the Spirit" was "buried up to 
the hilt" in the refuges of lies, in which many slept at 
ease in Zion ; and the " Eigging Loft," Sabbath after 
Sabbath, resounded with the joyful notes of victory as 
the wail of penitence gave place to songs of praise to 
a pardoning God. Under his ministry, and that of the 
faithful Embury, multitudes found peace and joy 
through believing, and the words of the prophet 
received a beautiful illustration — " The children that 
thou shalt have shall say in thine ears, The place is too 
strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell." 
Speedily the building of a church was proposed, and 
arrangements made to carry the project into effect. In 
the next chapter I shall show the part borne by Irish 
genius and liberality in the noble enterprise of erecting 



ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN NEW YORK. 99 

John Street Chapel — " The Cradle of American 
Methodism." * 

*Dt. Coggeshall, a distinguished transatlantic authority in such 
matters, said to my friend, the Rev. Dr. Scott, that he thought 
Captain "Webb was an Irishman. Of course, I should like to 
think so too ; but, though I have made a thorough search in 
every available quarter, I have not been able to find any record 
as to the place of his birth, and I venture to think that it will 
never be found out. John Prichard published a funeral sermon 
on the occasion of his death, and Mr. Atmore read the service. 
Both printed anything they knew of him nearly seventy years 
ago, and, doubtless, if they knew of the place of his birth, or 
could have found it out, it would have been printed in his 
funeral sermon. He sleeps in Portland Chapel, Bristol, where 
a neat monument has been erected to his memory, on which it 
is stated that "he founded the first Methodist churches" in 
America, — a statement which is not historically correct. A 
likeness of the veteran Captain, with the shade over his eye, 
may be seen in Crowther's Portraiture of Methodism. Second 
Edit. 1815. 



Prfltp 0mfaurs auii Jits, leek: 

'%\t Craole of ^trarican: Pe^nbtsm." 



"A few years since I visited John Embury and his worthy companion. 
He was then ninety-eight years old. The scenes of early Methodism in 
New York were vivid in his recollection, and he referred to them as readily 
as if they had recently occurred. He said : ' My uncle, Philip Embury, 
was a great man — a powerful preacher — a very powerful preacher. I had 
heard many ministers before, but nothing reached my heart till I heard my 
uncle Philip preach. I was then about sixteen. The Lord has since been 
my trust and portion. I am now ninety-eight. Yes ! my uncle Philip was 
a great preacher.' Letter from, Rev. William Case, of Canada, to Rev. Dr. 
Bangs." —See Life and Times of the Rev. Dr. Bangs. 



CHAPTER Y. 



IMPORTANT LETTER FROM " T. T." (THOMAS TAYLOR) TO WESLEY 
— VALUE OF THIS LETTER IN FIXING THE DATE OF EMBURY'S 
EMIGRATION AND THE ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN NEW YORK 
— LEASE OF JOHN STREET PROPERTY, AND TRUSTEES — 
EMBURY THE FIRST TRUSTEE AND FIRST TREASURER OF THE 
CHAPEL FUND — IRISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ENTERPRISE 
— MRS. HECK THE ARCHITECT OF THE CHURCH — EMBURY'S 
OPENING SERMON, IN OCTOBER, 1768— DESTRUCTION OF THE 
"RIGGING LOFT," 1854. 

rFHE original Chapel, built upon the site of the pre- 
sent noble John Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 
New York, as being the first Methodist Church on the 
American Continent, has been denominated " The 
Cradle of American Methodism." In this chapter I 
purpose to show the place occupied by Embury and his 
Irish friends in this noble enterprise. I feel that I 
cannot more suitably introduce this branch of my sub- 
ject than by giving the friendly reader the following- 
most important letter in full. It was found by the late 
Rev. Charles Atmore amongst the papers of the late 



104 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK V 

Eev. Christopher Hopper, was sent from New York to 
Mr. Wesley, signed "T. T.," and by him probably sent 
to Mr. Hopper. It is likely that Wesley sent it to 
Hopper, whom he regarded as one of his best men, with 
the idea of inducing him to throw himself into the 
great American movement. Be this as it may, it is 
inferior in point of interest to no document that could 
be published just now. It sheds a clear and beautiful 
light upon Embury and his Irish friends amidst the 
early struggles of the infant rising church. It will be 
seen that it is now upwards of ninety-eight years old, 
and was written more than a year and a-half before 
the arrival of Messrs. Boardman and Pilmoor, the first 
preachers sent out by Wesley : — 

"New York, 11th of April, 1768. 
" Eev. and very Dear Sir, — I intended writing to 
you for several weeks past, but a few of us had a very 
material transaction in view. I therefore postponed 
writing, until I could give you a particular account 
thereof. This Avas the purchasing of ground for build- 
ing a preaching-house upon, which, by the blessing of 
God, we have now concluded. But, before I proceed, 
I shall give you a short account of the state of religion 
in this city. By the best intelligence I can collect, 
there was little either of the form or power of it till 
Mr. Whitefield came over, thirty years ago ; and, even 
after his first and second visit, there appeared but little 
fruit of his labours. But, during his visit fourteen or 
fifteen years ago, there was a considerable shaking 



"THE CRADLE OF AMERICAN METHODISM." 105 

among the dry bones. Divers were savingly converted, 
and this work was much increased in his last journey, 
about fourteen years since, when his words were really 
as a hammer and as a fire. Most part of the adults 
were stirred up ; great numbers pricked to tbe heart ; 
and, by a judgment of charity, several found peace and 
joy in believing. The consequence of this work was, 
the churches were crowded, and subscriptions raised for 
building new ones. Mr. Whitefield's example provoked 
most of the ministers to a much greater degree of 
earnestness ; and, by the multitudes of people, young 
and old, rich and poor, flocking to the churches, religion 
became an honourable profession. There was no out- 
ward cross to be taken up therein — nay, a person who 
could not speak about the grace of God, and tbe new 
birth, was esteemed unfit for genteel company. But in 
a while, instead of pressing forward and growing in 
grace (as he exhorted them), the generality were plead- 
ing for the remains of sin, and the necessity of being 
in darkness. They esteemed their opinions as tbe very 
essentials of Christianity, and regarded not holiness 
either of heart or life. 

" The above appears to me to be a genuine account 
of the state of religion in New York eighteen months 
ago, when it pleased God to rouse up Mr. Embury to 
employ his talent (which, for several years, had been, as 
it were, hid in a napkin), by calling sinners to repent- 
ance, and exhorting believers to let their light shine 
before men. He spoke at first only in his own house. 
A few were collected together, and joined in a little 



106 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK : 

society — chiefly his own countrymen, Irish. In about 
three months after, Brother White and Brother Sause, 
from Dublin, joined them. They then rented an empty 
room in their neighbourhood, which was in the most 
infamous street in the city, adjoining the barracks. 
For some time few thought it worth their while to 
hear • but God so ordered it by His Providence, that, 
about fourteen months ago, Captain Webb, barrack- 
master at Albany (who was converted about three years 
since at Bristol), found them out, and preached in his 
regimentals. The novelty of a man preaching in a 
scarlet coat soon brought greater numbers to hear than 
the room could contain. But his doctrines were quite 
new to the hearers ; for he told them, point blank, that 
all their knowledge and profession of religion was not 
worth a rush, unless their sins were forgiven, and they 
had the witness of God's Spirit with theirs, that they 
were the children of God. This strange doctrine, with 
some peculiarities in his person, made him soon to be 
taken notice of, and obliged the little Society to look 
out for a larger house to preach in. They soon found 
a place that had been built for a rigging-house, sixty 
feet in length, and eighteen in breadth. 

"About this period, Mr. Webb, whose wife's relations 
lived at Jamaica, on Long Island, took a house in that 
neighbourhood, and began to preach in his own house, 
and several other places on Long Island. Within six 
months, about twenty-four persons received justifying 
grace — near half of them whites, the rest negroes. 
While Mr. Webb, to borrow his own phrase, was 



"THE CRADLE OP AMERICAN METHODISM." 107 

' Felling the trees on Long Island,' Brother Embury 
was exhorting all who attended on Thursday evenings, 
and Sunday mornings and evenings, at the 4 Rigging 
House,' to flee from the wrath to come. His hearers 
began to increase, and some gave heed to his report, 
about the time the gracious providence of God brought 
me safe to New York, after a very favourable passage 
of six weeks from Plymouth. It was the 26th day of 
October last when I arrived, recommended to a person 
for lodging. I inquired of my host (who was a very 
religious man) if any Methodists were in New York 1 
He informed me there was one Captain Webb, a strange 
sort of a man, who lived on Long Island, and some- 
times preached at one Embury's, at the 'Rigging 
House.' In a few days I found out Embury. I soon 
found what spirit he was of, and that he was personally 
acquainted with you and your doctrines, and had been 
a helper in Ireland. He had formed two classes, one 
of the men and another of the women, but had never 
met the Society apart from the congregation, although 
there were six or seven men, and about the same 
number of women, who had a clear sense of their ac- 
ceptance in the Beloved. 

" You will not wonder at my being agreeably sur- 
prised in meeting with a few here who have been, and 
desire again to be, in connexion with you. God only 
knows the weight of the affliction I felt in leaving my 
native country; but I have reason now to conclude 
God intended all for my good. 

"Mr. Embury has lately been more zealous than 



108 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK '. 

formerly — the consequence of which is, that he is more 
lively in preaching, and his gifts, as well as graces, are 
mnch increased. Great numbers of serious people came 
to hear God's Word, as for their lives, and their num- 
bers increased so fast, that our house, for this six weeks 
past, would not contain the half of the people. 

" We had some consultation how to remedy this in- 
convenience, and Mr. Embury proposed renting a lot 
of ground for twenty-one years, and to exert our utmost 
endeavours to collect as much money as to build a 
wooden tabernacle. A piece of ground was proposed, 
the ground-rent was agreed for, and the lease was to be 
executed in a few days. We, however, in the mean- 
time, had two several days for fasting and prayer for 
the direction of God and His blessing on our proceed- 
ings, and Providence opened such a door as we had no 
expectation of. A young man, a sincere Christian and 
constant hearer, though not joined in Society, would not 
give anything towards this house, but offered ten pounds 
to buy a lot of ground, went of his own accord to a lady 
who had two lots to sell, on one of which there is a house 
that rents for eighteen pounds per annum. He found the 
purchase-money of the two lots was six hundred pounds, 
which she was willing should remain in the purchaser's 
hands on good security. We called once more upon 
God for His direction, and resolved to purchase the 
whole. There are eight of us, who are joint-purchasers, 
among whom Mr. Webb and Mr. Lupton are men of 
property. I was determined the house should be on 
the same footing as the Orphan House at Newcastle, 



"THE CRADLE OF AMERICAN METHODISM." 109 

and others in England; but as we were ignorant how 
to draw the deeds, we purchased for us and our heirs, 
until a copy of the writing from England was sent us, 
which we desire may he sent by the first opportunity. 

" Before we began to talk of building, the devil and 
his children were very peaceable ; but since this affair 
took place, many ministers have cursed us in the name 
of the Lord, and laboured with all their might to shut 
up their congregations from assisting us.* But he that 
sitteth in heaven laughed them to scorn. Many have 
broke through, and given their friendly assistance. We 
have collected above one hundred pounds more than 
our own contributions, and have reason to hope, in the 
whole, we shall have two hundred pounds more, so 
that, unless God is pleased to raise up friends, we shall 
be at a loss. I believe Messrs. Webb and Lupton will 
borrow or advance two hundred pounds rather than the 

* Perhaps I may as well add, in a foot-note, a fact which will 
illustrate the injury which Embury's Church sustained, as the 
result of being cursed by the " Dutch Calvinists " and others, in 
the name of the Lord. During the period of the Eevolutionary 
war, when New York was in the possession of the British troops, 
every church in the city was turned into a barrack, and all re- 
ligious services, of course, suspended during the entire period, 
with the solitary exception of Wesley Chapel, John Street! 
Meantime, not a single service was given up in it, or the 
slightest inconvenience experienced. On the contrary, it being 
the only Church available in the city, it was crowded by eager 
multitudes, and the collections rose, Sabbath after Sabbath, to 
an unprecedented amount. Perhaps it was all a matter of 
decree— I don't know. I only know that it was a matter of 
fact. 



110 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK : 

building should not go forward; but the interest of 
money here is a great burden, which is seven per cent. 
Some of our brethren proposed writing to you for a col- 
lection in England, but I was averse to this, as I well 
knew our friends there are overburdened already. Yet, 
so far as I would earnestly beg, if you would intimate 
our circumstances to particular persons of ability, per- 
haps God would open their hearts to assist this infant 
Society, and contribute to the first preaching-house on 
the original Methodist plan in all America. But I shall 
write no more on this head. 

" There is another point far more material, and in 
which I must importune your assistance, not only in 
my own name, but in the name of the whole Society. 
We want an able, experienced preacher — one who has 
both gifts and graces necessary for the work. God has 
not despised the day of small things. There is a real 
work in many hearts, by the preaching of Mr. Webb 
and Mr. Embury; but, although they are both useful, 
and their hearts in the work, they want many qualifi- 
cations necessary for such an undertaking, where they 
have none to direct them. And the progress of the 
Gospel here depends much on the qualifications of the 
preachers. 

" I have thought of Mr. Helton ; for, if possible, we 
must have a man of wisdom, of sound faith, and a 
good disciplinarian — one whose heart and soul are in 
the work ; and I doubt not but, by the goodness of 
God, such a flame would be soon kindled as would 
never stop, until it reached the great South Sea. We 



" THE CEADLE OF AMERICAN METHODISM." Ill 



may make many shifts to evade temporal inconveniences, 
but we cannot purchase such a preacher as I have de- 
scribed. Dear Sir, I entreat you, for the good of 
thousands, to use your utmost endeavours to send one 
over. I would advise him to take shipping at Bristol, 
Liverpool, or Dublin, in the month of July, or early in 
August. By embarking at this season, he will have 
fine weather on his passage, and probably arrive here in 
the month of September. He will see with his own 
eyes, before winter, what progress the Gospel has made. 
With respect to the money for payment of a preacher's 
passage over, if they could not procure it, we would 
sell our coats and shirts, and pay it. I most earnestly 
beg an interest in your pra}^ers, and trust you and many 
of our brethren will not forget the Church in this 
wilderness. " T. T." 

This is a noble document, " providentially found," as 
Mr. Atmore says, equally creditable to the head and 
heart of the writer. I am sorry that the most diligent 
search has failed to find out more of the anonymous 
writer than his name, Thomas Taylor ; that he was an 
Englishman, well-known to Mr. Wesley; and one of 
the illustrious eight who formed the first Methodist 
Trustees on the great American Continent. 

This important document supplies corroborative evi- 
dence of the accuracy of 1760 as the date of Embury's 
emigration, and is most conclusive as to his having 
commenced the regular services, as given in last chapter, 
in 1766. Mr. Taylor says that Embury commenced the 



112 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK : 

services " about eighteen months ago." Supposing him 
to have preached his first sermon in his own house, in 
October, 1766, if we add eighteen months to that date, 
it will bring us down exactly to April, 1768 — the date 
of this letter. Mr. Taylor says that, at the period 
when Embury commenced in New York, " his talent 
had lain in a napkin for several years" — namely, from 
1760, the date of his arrival, till October, 1766. 
Nothing more satisfactory as to the true date of his 
emigration, and of the commencement of the regular 
religious services, can be desired ; and could the 
Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States 
have a more appropriate year in which to celebrate 
the first Centenary of its existence than the grand 
prophetic year 1866 1 

By comparing this document with the lease of J ohn 
Street property, we ascertain the name of the writer, 
and also the names of those who shared the responsi- 
bility and honour with him of forming the first Metho- 
dist Trustees on American soil. The writer says, 
" There are eight of us, who are joint-purchasers." The 
lease bears date 29th of March, 1768, and is between 
Mary Barclay, executrix, and Andrew Barclay, Leonard 
Lispenard, and David Clarkson, executors of the last 
will and testament of Henry Barclay, late of the city of 
]STew York, clergyman, deceased, on the one part ; and 
Philip Embury, William Lupton, Charles White, 
Eichard Sause, Henry Newton, Paul Heck (husband ot 
Mrs. Heck), and Thomas Taylor (the writer of this 
letter), all of the city of New York, and Thomas Webb 



"THE CRADLE OF AMERICAN METHODISM." 113 



(Captain Webb), of Queen's County, of the other part. 
On the outside is written : — 

" Mart Barclay, and others, -\ 

to > Lease." 

Philip Embury, and others, J 

Thus, Mr. Taylor's letter and the original lease unite in 
giving Embury a leading place in the spirited enter- 
prise of securing a site for " The Cradle of American 
Methodism." He was the first Trustee of American 
Methodism, as he was her first preacher. Who can 
tell how much of the ultimate success of this enter- 
prise, as well as of the noble and flourishing church of 
which it was destined to form the . " cradle," sprung 
from the days of fasting and solemn prayer on the part 
of Embury, Mrs. Heck, and that brave little band of 
first Trustees % 

The " Old Book," containing the names of all the 
subscribers to the new church, has been found, and is 
a document of rare historic interest. The following is 
the preamble, of which Bishop Janes has expressed his 
profound admiration. I give it entire, inasmuch as it 
serves to illustrate Embury's position in the infant 
Church : — 

" Preamble of the Subscription List, with the names of the Sub- 
scribers, and respective Sums given annext : — 

" A number of persons, desirous to worship God in 
spirit and truth, commonly called Methodists (under 
the direction of the Eev. Mr. John Wesley), whom it 

H 



114 



PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK: 



is evident God has been pleased to bless in their meet- 
ings in New York, thinking it would be more to the 
glory of God and the good of souls had they a more 
convenient place to meet in, where the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ might be preached without distinction of sects 
or parties ; and, as Mr. Philip Embury is a member 
and helper in the Gospel, they humbly beg the assist- 
ance of Christian friends, in order to enable them to 
build a small house for the purpose, not doubting but 
the God of all consolation will abundantly bless all 
such as are willing to contribute to the same." 

Then follow the names, nearly 250 in all, from Cap- 
tain "Webb, who gave £30, down to coloured servants, 
who gave Is. 6d. or 2s., making £418 3s. 6d. Amongst 
the subscribers we find: — Richard Sause, £13 5s.; 
Charles White, £5 ; Paul Heck (husband* of Mrs. 
Heck), £3 5s.; David Embury (Philip's brother), £2 ; 
and several others from Ireland. Embury's name does 
not appear in the list. He was poor, and had no 
money to give ; but he contributed something to the 
enterprise which silver and gold were too poor to buy. 

The idea of building a church originated with Mrs. 
Heck, who said that she had made it matter of special 
prayer. Strange to tell, this noble woman also was the 
architect of the church, having supplied the plan, which 
was thoroughly approved and adopted by general con- 

* Not son, as Wakeley says. She had no son Paul. This 
mistake arose from confounding Mrs. Hick, with Mrs. Barbara 
Heck. 



"THE CRADLE OF AMERICAN METHODISM." 115 



sent. The length was sixty feet, by forty-two in width. 
It was bnilt of common stone, covered with blue plaster. 
It had a gallery, but for many years had no stairs, but 
the people ascended by a ladder. The seats had no 
backs at first, as the funds were low. The timber 
work was done by Embury and David Morris. Embury's 
own hand constructed the pulpit. 

The " Old Book" proves that Embury was also the first 
Treasurer of the Chapel Fund, and that he had the en- 
tire burden and responsibility, until relieved by the 
appointment of Mr. Lupton. Some idea of his services 
in this department may be gathered from the following 
receipt from the mason who built the chapel : — 

"Received, New York, 7th October, 1769, of Mr. 
William Lupton, forty-three pounds, which, with the 
different sums I have before received from Mr. Philip 
Embury, amounts to the sum of five hundred and eleven 
pounds, which is in full of all demands from the 
Methodist Preaching-House. 

£511. "Samuel Edmonds."* 

The opening sermon was preached by Embury, 
October 30th, 1768 — just two years after his first 
sermon in his own house — from Hosea, x. 12, "Sow to 
yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up 
your fallow ground : for it is time to seek the Lord, till 
he come and rain righteousness upon you." With 
characteristic simplicity he said, that the best conse- 

* Grandfather to Judge Edmonds, the Spiritualist. Wakeley. 



116 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK, ETC. 

cration of a pulpit was to preach a good sermon 
in it. 

Such, was the first Methodist Church in New York, 
" The Cradle of American Methodism," and such its 
opening service — simple, appropriate, beautiful. The 
honest carpenter from Ballingran — the founder of 
American Methodism — preaching the opening sermon 
in the first Methodist Church in the goodly land of his 
adoption, and amongst a people who loved and prized 
him. What hath God wrought ! What a marvellous 
change now, within one hundred years ! 

From this date "The Eigging Loft" was abandoned 
as a Methodist preaching-place, and John Street Church 
became the head-quarters of Methodism in the city. 
Embury's church was demolished in 1817, to make way 
for a new and enlarged edifice, adapted to the rising 
fortunes of the church, and in turn this new building 
gave place, in 1841, to the present noble church, known 
as John Street Church, the third built on this site. 
"The Eigging Loft" outlived Embury's church many 
years. It was taken down in 1854, during some im- 
provements in the street in which it stood. Many old 
Methodists bid it a fond adieu, as a place hallowed by 
precious memories. The timbers were still sound, and 
were converted into walking-sticks. An ivory head 
was placed upon each, with the inscription, " Eigging 
Loft, 1766. Philip Embury." * Both timber and ivory 
will crumbleto dust beneath the iron tooth of time, butthe 
name of Philip Embury will last long as time itself. 
* It should have been 1767. 



$|tlt£ fctog anil Jlrs. Itcit 



" Why, this tree of Methodism has grown in one hundred years, so that 
it now not only casts its shade over the whole of this land, but many others 
sit also in its shadow. But here was its beginning in this God-educated, 
God-empowered local preacher, upon whose ashes we gaze to-day; and if I 
had before me to-day all the Methodists of this land, I would say to them 
that when you depart from the simple but vital, God-approved truths and 
aith which Embury preached and exercised, you largely lose your power 
for good. 

" This occasion illustrates another truth, that the way of duty is the path 
to true honour. Read up carefully the history of our race, and you will 
find that those persons who have come to the possession of true and im- 
mortal fame, are those who have simply done their duty in their respective 
spheres. Men have sometimes gained notoriety by other than dutiful or 
good deeds ; but where is undying reputation, immortal honour to be found ? 
Ministers in our own Church who have sought distinction and honour in 
the ministry, by seeking this place or that place, have sometimes in a mea- 
sure and for a time succeeded ; but to-day they are forgotten, while the 
memory of this humble local preacher lives and shall live while the world 
endures, all because he did his duty in his identical place. Take the case 
of the Dairyman's daughter. How humble was her sphere, but in it she 
did her duty, and there is no name of a queen on earth so truly honoured 
as is hers. So, too, the name of Philip Embury will live when the name 
of Napoleon shall be forgotten." — From an Address at the re-interment of 
Embury's remains at Cambridge, New York, April 20th, 1866, by the Rev. 
Bishop Janes. 



CHAPTER VI. 



%i Camttttt: 

ARRIVAL OF THOMAS ASHTON AND ROBERT WILLIAMS FROM 
IRELAND — WILLIAMS THE FIRST ITINERANT IN AMERICA, 
AND THE SPIRITUAL FATHER OF JESSE LEE — ASHTON AND 
HIS COLONY AT ASHGROVE — REV. ABRAHAM BININGER — 
ARRIVAL OF BOARD MAN AND PILMOOR— EMBURY, PAUL AND 
MRS. HECK REMOVE TO CAMDEN — EMBURY FORMS A CLASS 
AT ASHGROVE — BECAME A MAGISTRATE — HIS DEATH IN 1773 
CATHERINE LOWE — DEATH OF TWO OF HIS CHILDREN— MRS. 
EMBURY, PAUL AND BARBARA HECK REMOVE TO CANADA — 
ASHTON AND CEMETERY AT ASHGROVE — REMOVAL OF EM- 
BURY'S REMAINS TO ASHGROVE IN 1832— ORATION ON THE 
OCCASION BY JOHN NEWLAND MAFFITT — HIS TOMB. 

TTTESLEY CHAPEL, John Street, was about ten 
' * months under Embury's care as the pastor, when 
two other illustrious strangers arrived from Ireland — 
Thomas Ashton, from Dublin, " of blessed memory," 
and Robert Williams. Williams is allowed on all 
hands to have been one of the foremost spirits of his 
day — the first who issued a Quarterly ticket in America, 
the first who published a book, the first of the heroic 



120 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK AT CAMDEN". 

Land of the Itinerancy who had the courage to enter 
into the holy estate, and the first of the same noble 
host who slept in Jesus beneath the green sward of the 
New World. His success in winning souls to Christ 
was truly marvellous. Bishop Asbury, in a splendid 
eulogy pronounced over his remains in 1775, said of 
him, " Probably no one in America has been an instru- 
ment of awakening so many souls as God has awakened 
by him." Amongst the fruit of his memorable ministry 
was Jesse Lee, the apostle of Methodism in New Eng- 
land — a man whose conversion was worth tens of 
thousands of ordinary converts to American Methodism. 
And does America really owe to Ireland her first 
Itinerant preacher, as well as her first lay preacher, and 
that Itinerant Eobert Williams, the spiritual father of 
Jesse Lee % We shall see by and by. I shall be much 
mistaken if, when I come to Williams's honoured name, 
the debt of American Methodism to Ireland will not 
assume new proportions in the eyes of Methodism on 
both sides of the Atlantic. For the present I must 
follow the story of Embury's life till we see him laid in 
his final resting-place. 

Ashton was a gentleman of means, and on com- 
ing to New York in August, 1769, went north of 
New York near Cambridge, and founded a colony, 
to which he gave his name Ashgrove. Many of his 
countrymen, the Irish Palatines, went from New 
York and settled on his property, and many more 
at Camden, Salem, not far from Ashgrove. Peter 
Switzer, Mrs. Embury's brother, procured two hundred 



DEATH OP EMBURY. 



121 



acres of land at a trifling rent, at East Salem, along the 
winding Battenkill, and in due time many others of the 
Irish Palatines, including Philip and David Embury, 
Paul Heck and his noble wife, and the Dulmage, Tetler 7 
Lawrence, Morgan, and other families, settled about 
Camden, Salem. Amongst those who removed from 
New York with them was the Eev. Abraham 
Bininger, a Moravian minister, who, by the way, had 
accompanied Wesley to Georgia. 

In October, 1769, Messrs. Boardman and Pilmoor 
arrived in New York, from England, and took charge 
of Wesley Chapel, John Street. Embury was truly 
glad to be thus honourably released from his laborious 
services in connexion with Methodism in New York, 
and be at liberty to devote some attention to the in- 
terests of his family. Accordingly, he removed from New 
York, with his wife and three children, in April. 1770, 
and joined the colony at Salem. We find an entry in 
the " Old Book," under date, April 10, 1770, of £2 5s. 
for "a Concordance for Philip Embury;" this was 
probably a parting gift from the little church to Philip, 
as they bid the founder of American Methodism fare- 
well. It is the last entry in connexion with his name. 

In 1770, Embury formed a Society at Ashgrove, 
composed principally of Irish Palatines, including 
Paul and Barbara Heck, and also the worthy Thomas 
Ashton. This was the first Methodist Society formed 
within the bounds of the present Troy Conference, 
which has now a membership of upwards of twenty- 
five thousand, between two and three hundred travel- 



122 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK AT CAMDEN. 

ling preachers, and a proportionate staff of efficient 
local preachers. 

Embury lived on the farm with Peter Switzer, at 
Salem, and there, Philip, his youngest child, was born. 
He soon rose to a position of considerable influence in 
the neighbourhood, and was not only a preacher, 
but also a magistrate, who was familiarly designated 
" the Squire." I presume his position was identical 
with that of Burgomaster, occupied by Philip Guier 
in Ballingran. 

In the month of August, 1773, Philip was mowing 
on his farm beneath a burning sun, and an attempt was 
made by some who worked with him to outdo " the 
Squire." He was young and vigorous, and imprudently 
drew upon his strength. It ended in pleurisy, of 
which, in a few days' illness, he died, "in the full 
triumph of that faith which he had preached to 
others," at the early age of forty-five. Singularly 
enough, he was attended, in death, by the venerable 
Abraham Bininger, Wesley's early friend, who also laid 
him in his humble grave, in the beautiful and seques- 
tered vale of Salem, beneath a giant oak, which, for 
more than half a century, was his only monument. 

Bininger, venerable in years and in piety, fell asleep 
at the advanced age of ninety-one, and rests in the 
same beautiful valley. He was Swiss by birth, and 
found a grave in the far West, near Wesley's friend, 
and his own, Philip Embury. 

After Embury's death, his widow and her four 
children removed to a house which he had built about 



DEATH OF EMBUKY. 



123 



a mile south of Switzer's farm. Here she managed to 
support herself, with the assistance of Catherine Lowe. 
Catherine was a young girl who accompanied the family 
of Peter Switzer from Ireland when she was about 
thirteen, and engaged to serve him till she was twenty- 
five, in consideration of his having paid her passage. 
Embury thought the bargain too severe, and, by making 
some new and milder terms with Peter, gained an in- 
valuable friend for his family in Catherine Lowe. 
After a time, Philip's two younger children, Anna and 
Philip, died, and Catherine proved a faithful friend in 
this sad and mournful hour. 

In 1778, Catherine Lowe married Edward Gainor, 
from Ireland. She lived a godly life, and died peace- 
fully at the age of eighty years. Two of her daughters, 
Mrs. Elemming and Mrs. Buck, became "mothers in 
Israel," and have contributed a good many of the inter- 
esting facts given in this chapter. 

Shortly after Catherine's marriage, the Revolutionary 
War became most troublesome around New York, and 
Embury's family, and others of the Irish Palatines, 
were exposed to great privations and annoyances, as 
they were suspected of being favourable to British rule 
in America. Ultimately, Mrs. Embury, with her chil- 
dren, Samuel and Catherine Elizabeth, Paul and Barbara 
Heck, and many other of the Irish Palatines, removed 
to Canada, "preferring the dominion of King George 
to a further participation in the sweets of liberty."* 

*See an excellent paper, already referred to, by the Kev. 
George G-. Saxe, A. M. , in Ladies 1 Repository. 



124 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK AT CAMDEN. 

They settled about Augusta, Canada West, where we 
shall meet them by and by, when I come to speak of 
Canada. For the present I must bid them farewell. 

I return and add a few closing words about Ashton, 
Ashgrove, and Philip Embury. Ashton became the 
chief pillar of the Ashgrove Methodist Society, and his 
house the friendly home of the Itinerants. " He left 
a legacy of three acres of land for a parsonage, and an 
annuity to the end of time for the oldest unmarried 
member of the New York Conference, the payment of 
which still reminds the preachers annually of his eccen- 
tric Irish liberality."* He was not a bachelor, but I 
presume wished to relieve the funds of the church, and 
hence, permanently endowed single blessedness. The 
wonder is, that in the progressive times in which we 
live a single claimant can be found. 

On the Ashgrove property a small Methodist 
cemetery has been constructed, within which sleep 
Ashton himself, and many of the Irish Palatines, and 
David Brown and David Noble — two of Embury's 
illustrious countrymen — well known in the ministry of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. What more appro- 
priate and beautiful final resting-place for the dust of 
Philip Embury ? 

Eor forty-nine years the dust of Embury had slept 
beneath the giant oak " where the grey -haired men of 
other days" had laid him; but, in 1832, when the 
Church had awoke to a consciousness of his value, it 
was resolved to exhume his bones, now crumbling to 
* Dr. Stevens's History of M. E. Church, I. p. 84. 



DEATH OF EMBURY. 



125 



dust, and remove them to Ashgrove. A vast concourse 
of friends, to whom his name and memory were de- 
servedly dear, assembled on the occasion. An oration 
was delivered by John Newland Maffitt, a brilliant 
Irishman, from Dublin. It was subsequently printed, 
and had a large circulation at the time. I give a few 
paragraphs from it, as probably not one of my readers 
in Ireland ever saw it : — 

" My Beloved Hearers, — In this sequestered spot, 
where the quiet herds have grazed in peace, where the 
robin has sung his early song, and the snow-bird played 
with the descending flakes of winter, even here 
moulders the frame of a man. Bone after bone hath 
here returned to the dust from whence man was origi- 
nally taken. Dig down now, after this lapse of years, 
dig down now, and see if here we can find EMBURY. 
Here the grey-haired men of other days laid him, the 
cold remains of a minister of Jesus, when his day of 
labour was over. Here, one day, when the hearse 
slowly wound along this path, they gathered, not to see 
the man of God in his mightiest strength when the oil 
of eloquence is on his lips, and the anointing of the 
Most High shines upon his face, but to see a minister 
of the New Testament, cold and lifeless as was his 
Saviour when taken down from the bloody cross on 
Calvary. Cold, cold in death was the pious, warm- 
hearted Embury when they laid him here. 

" Summer and Winter came and went again. The 
grass grew tall and rank over this mound. It became 
level with the surrounding earth. The place was fad- 



126 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK AT CAMDEN". 

ing from the memory of man, for lo ! many who dug 
and covered this grave went themselves to their last 
resting-place, and laid their time-wearied heads on that 
coarse pillow of gravel. 

" I have made these preliminary remarks, suggested 
as they have been by the strange circumstances which 
have called us together. Not to bury the dead, mot to 
disinter his mouldering remains, have we come together; 
not to shed a tear over Embury dead ! But to thank 
God that so good a man ever lived, and to rear a frail 
stone over his dust, which may tell his name and our 
reverence for his virtues for four or five generations yet 
to come. Then this very marble which we rear to-clay 
shall gather the rust of years — the gnawing tooth of time 
shall eat away our inscription — and men shall wonder 
at the ragged fragment of a monument that shall 
cumber this ground, and guess by what wild chance it 
strayed away from its native quarry. We come here 
to-day, after a lapse of years, to rear a monument over 
one of the nursing fathers of Methodism in America. 

" No common dust moulders beneath our feet. Here 
fell a harnessed warrior of the cross. Embury was the 
founder of Methodism in the city of New York. We 
know not his path in another land beyond the blue 
waves of the Atlantic. He was my countryman, but 
whether his path was one of light or darkness, of gloom 
or glory, in his native isle, I know not. But this I 
know, and record it to his eternal honour, that he was 
deemed worthy by the Holy Spirit to institute Wesley- 
anism in the city of New York. 



DEATH OF EMBURY. 



127 



"Here let me beg the indulgence of my audience, 
while I take a farewell of the relics of the dead, which 
are so near me. He had, perhaps, no sympathizing 
friend to say Farewell, and God be ivith thee ! in the 
last hour. The one who echoes his adieu over his grave 
was not then born ; he had not breathed that breath of 
life which was then departing from Embury. But now, 
departed shade, I come on my pilgrimage to speak my 
farewell, and raise a stone above thy ashes. Farewell, 
my brother ! more than brother, father in God ! Fare- 
well ! until the red morning of the resurrection sparkles 
over yonder hills, and the tremendous voice of the 
trumpet shall bid thee come forth radiant in more 
beauty than ever earth beheld. Farewell, until I too 
shall pass to where thou art in thy resting place of 
peace. Farewell, until shadows stretch over time with 
a gloomy magnificence, and the night that knows no 
breaking sets in upon me. Farewell, my countryman ! 
more than mine, the countryman of Jesus, a chosen 
vessel of his love, an instrument in his mighty hand of 
planting the precious seeds of the eternal kingdom on 
these Western shores in the trying early times. Often 
in the journey of life shall my memory revert to this 
scene — often shall I remember the once unknown and 
undistinguished grave. Often shall I gather, departed 
shade, from these memorials, a precious lesson of the 
eternal care of the Saviour over the wasting dust of his 
chosen. How shall I learn how worthless is time, how 
precious is eternity ! Travelling back from future times, 
my memory will often repose on the spot, where thou, 



128 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK AT CAMDEN. 



my father, resteth in the full glory of recompense. 
And now, till we meet, farewell. 

" . . . But see ! a heavenly form breaks forth 
from the dust beneath our feet, scattering the soil of 
centuries from his radiant brow, and, fresh in the glow 
of a young immortality, Embury rises to the resurrection 
of the just. This is the day he long looked for, and 
thought of, and warned sinners of, when he was in life. 
It has come. He no longer needs a frail slab of marble 
to mark the spot of his grave, for now he is known as 
far as immortal souls can glance their untiring eyes — as 
far as the accents of Jesus' s voice can echo his welcome, 
No more he fills a stranger's grave. JSTo more he needs 
the eulogy of a man he never saw. ~No more he labours 
at his trade, for he has, through the strength of the 
Lord Jesus, wrought out a crown of eternal life, and he 
now takes it from the hands of celestial ones, who kiss 
his death-cold brow into the warmth of a beautiful im- 
mortality. Let me die the death, that I may wear the 
crown of Embury. Let me live the life, that I may 
win the spirit-watched grave of my departed country- 
man."* 

Though, perhaps, there is rather much of the tin- 
selled eloquence of Charles Phillips, and too little of 
the manly vigour of Grattan about this address, still, 
when delivered in Maffitt's best style, it produced a 

* From ' ' An Oration delivered, June, 1832, at Ashgrove, 
Washington County, New York, over the grave of Philip Embury, 
the earliest minister in the American Methodist Church. By 
Rev. John Newland Maffitt. 



DEATH OF EMBURY. 



129 



wonderful impression, and, by common repute, was re- 
garded as his masterpiece. At its close, the dust of 
Embury was laid in the beautiful cemetery at Ashgrove. 
He sleeps near his friend Ashton, and next to his 
countrymen and companions in arms, David Noble and 
David Brown. 

Over his honoured dust a neat marble tablet has been 
erected, bearing the following appropriate inscription : — 



PHILIP EMBURY, 

The Earliest American Preacher of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, here found his last 
earthly resting-place. 

• ' Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of 
his saints." 

Born in Ireland, an emigrant to New York, Em- 
bury was the first to gather a class in that city, 
and to set in motion a train of measures 
which resulted in the founding of 
John Street Church, the Cradle 
of American Methodism, 
and the introduction 
of a system which 
has beautified 
the earth with salvation, 
and increased the joys of heaven. 



I reprint this chapter substantially as it appeared in the Irish 
Evangelist for May, 1866. Since it was published, the remains of 
Embury have been again exhumed, and now finally repose at 



I 



130 PHILIP EMBURY AND MRS. HECK AT CAMDEN. 

Cambridge — a most charming spot — not .far from Ashgrove. 
During the session of the Troy Conference at Cambridge, in 
April last, under the presidency of Bishop Janes, a day was 
fixed for the ceremony of removal. All the members of the 
Conference were present, and a large concourse of citizens. The 
Rev. John Pegg engaged in prayer, and an appropriate address 
was delivered by Bishop Janes, and also by the Bev. S. D. 
Brown, of the New York Conference. See the New York 
Christian Advocate for May 3, 1866, which contains a full report 
of the address of Bishop Janes. 

As John Newland Maffitt's name is connected in so in- 
teresting a way with that of Embury, the friendly reader will 
excuse the following extract, which illustrates, to some extent, 
his wonderful popularity in America when in the zenith of his 
power : — " Once, in the city of Boston, the writer of this gave 
out an appointment for Mr. Maffitt, at the close of the morning 
service, that he would preach that afternoon and evening in one 
of the largest audience-rooms in the capital of Massachusetts. 
It had not been known a moment before to the public that he 
was anywhere within the neighbourhood of Boston. The after- 
noon and evening came ; a sea-coast storm of wind and rain had 
set in soon after the morning hour, and before the second service 
of the day began it rained in torrents, and continued to rain 
more and more copiously from that time through the night. 
The tempest was so black with cloud, and fog, and rain, that the 
gas lights had to be lit in the afternoon to enable the audience to 
find their seats. There was not another man in Boston, nor in 
Massachusetts, excepting only Baniel Webster, who could have 
called out a hundred gentlemen under circumstances so utterly 
unpropitious. Mr. Mamtt's audiences, however, both afternoon 
and evening, made up of about the usual proportions of the 
sexes, were as brilliant as can be imagined. The place was the 
old Federal Street Theatre ; it was packed from pit to dome 
with the elite of Boston ; not only were all the seats, but the 



DEATH OF EMBURY. 



131 



aisles and corners were densely crowded — hundreds of ladies "being 
obliged to stand below and in all the four galleries, because the 
whole living mass was so wedged in that no gentleman could 
move out of his place to make a vacancy. The more venture- 
some, crowded more and more by those pushing forward from the 
doors, clung to the front railings of the galleries, where they 
seemed to hang like bees when swarming ; and when the preacher 
arose to read the first hymn, and the full head of gas was poured 
on the scene, it was both curious and exhilarating to behold 
what multitudes of human beings, gathered by so brief a notice, 
could be so crammed together. The next morning I was told 
, by the sexton that, though all the ladies, and most of the 
gentlemen, were compelled to come in carriages, nearly as many 
arrived and rode away, after the house was full, as had been 
admitted. This, however, was the universal experience of Mr. 
Maffitt, for it was at this time only a few days before this visit 
to Boston that the street in New York on which stood the 
church in which he had been advertised to preach, had been so 
blocked by the masses of carriages and foot passengers striving to 
make their way to the spot that it had to be cleared by the help 
of the municipal authorities." — From Methodism Successful, and 
the Internal Causes of its Success. By Eev. B. F. Tefft, 
D.D., LL.D., p. 154, 155. 



Mtxt MUams: 

Cjft Jfirsi %mmtm ffittfrant. 



"To Robert Williams belongs the distinction of being the first Metho- 
dist Itinerant who crossed the Atlantic, and the first Methodist preacher, 
Itinerant or Local, who came to this country for the express purpose of 
preaching the Gospel. He was the pioneer of our Church in the States of 
Virginia and North Carolina. He was the first in America to enlist the 
press in the service of Methodism ; ' the first Methodist preacher in this 
eountry who married, the first who located, and the first to die.' Though 
1 no man knoweth the place of his sepulchre,' his name will be had in 
everlasting remembranck." — From Letter of " W." in New York "Chris- 
tian Advocate" of May 24, 1866. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Cfj£ jfzrsi %mtxumx Jthuranf. 

DISPOSITION ON THE PART OF METHODIST WRITERS IN AME- 
RICA TO DO FULL JUSTICE TO IRISH METHODISM— MISTAKE 
OF WAKE LEY AND DR. STEVENS AS TO ROBERT WILLIAMS — 
HE WAS NOT A "LAY EVANGELIST," BUT A MEMBER OF THE 
IRISH CONFERENCE— CAME TO AMERICA WITH ASHTON— WAS 
IN CHARGE AND ISSUED TICKETS BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF 
BOARDMAN AND PILMOOR — HIS CHARACTER AND GREAT 
SERVICES — GERM OF " THE BOOK CONCERN "— HIS ENDURING 
MEMORIAL. 

TRISH METHODISTS have no cause to complain 
that our brethren in America have done but scanty 
justice to the influence and services of Irish Methodism. 
On the contrary, it gratifies me to say that the most 
prominent spirits in our transatlantic churches seem to 
vie with each other in doing full justice to " the old 
country." Hence, I am sure they will rejoice to learn 
that Robert Williams, the first of the noble band of 
the Itinerancy, and the spiritual father of Jesse Lee, 
was, like Embury, an emigrant from Ireland, and forms 
a most important item, hitherto unknown, in the vast 
debt of American Methodism to Ireland. 



136 



ROBERT WILLIAMS: 



Dr. Stevens, the accomplished Historian of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Wakeley, Mr. 
Lednum, and Bishop Asbury, have all done full 
justice to Williams's character and great services ; but 
none of them knew that he was an Irish Methodist 
preacher, and got the training in the saddle, in the days 
of the primitive Itinerancy in this land, which made 
him the noble man he was in America. Mr. Wakeley 
tells us that " Eobert Williams was a Local Preacher 
from England, who came to this country in the early 
part of the year 1769." He evidently was not quite 
satisfied with his theory of Williams as a Local 
Preacher, and hence he adds, " There has always been 
more or less of mystery connected with his name and 
history. What little we know of him makes us 
anxious to know more."* Dr. Stevens has fallen into 
the same mistake. He says, speaking of the origin of 
Methodism in America, " The news of the dawn of 
their cause in the 2sTew World spread among the people 
before the Annual Conference was called upon to recog- 
nize and provide for it ; and, before the Itinerant mis- 
sionaries could be despatched across the Atlantic, 
humbler men, imbued with the enthusiasm of the new 
movement, were ready to throw themselves upon the 
hazards of the distant field, that they might share in 
its first combats. One of these, Eobert Williams, 
applied to Wesley for authority to preach there. Per- 
mission was given him, on condition that he should 
labour in subordination to the missionaries who were 



* Wakeley's Lost Chapters, p. 190. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 



137 



about to be sent out." Elsewhere be calls Williams a 
" lay evangelist," like Embury and Strawbridge, and 
speaks of Boardman and Pilmoor as the first of Wesley's 
Itinerants who appeared in America. Now, the truth 
is, that Williams was not a " lay evangelist" at all, but 
an accredited member of the Irish Conference. He 
was taken out to travel at the Conference of 1766, and 
his name will be found in the " Minutes" for that 
year, amongst the Irish appointments, as follows : — 
" North- West (about Derry) — John Johnston, James 
Morgan. North-East (about Belfast and Coleraine) — 
James Eea, Robert Williams." Under date Friday, 
April 3, 1767, Wesley writes, " At the end of Dromore 
I met Eobert Williams, who showed me the way to 
Newry."* In 1767, he was stationed at Castlebar, 
amid the wilds of Connaught, with William Pen- 
nington. 

Wesley had something against him this year, probably 
some slight opposition to the clergy, and the appointment 
stands thus in the "Minutes": — "Castlebar — W. 
Pennington, Eobert W." At the Conference of 1768, 
he stands again for Castlebar, thus — " Castlebar — W. 
Collins, E. W.," from which we may infer that he 
had not fully recovered Wesley's confidence. The 
Castlebar Circuit of that day included the entire of the 
present Sligo District, and Williams preached in his 
regular "round" in Sligo, Boyle, Manorhamilton, and 
neighbouring towns. He was a vigorous dissenter, 
and, unfortunately, cared but little for the Established 
* Wesley's Journal, III. 262. 1767. 



138 



ROBERT WILLIAMS: 



clergy — a circumstance which may to some extent ex- 
plain "Wesley's want of confidence in him, and shed 
some light on the following notice from Wesley's 
Journal, written shortly before Williams's emigration to 
America : — " Friday, May 5. — I rode over the Black 
Mountains to Manorhamilton, so called from a poor 
wretch who settled here in the last century, who was 
famous for nothing else but hanging up all the Irish who 
fell into his hands. There was a general love to the 
Gospel here till simple R. W. preached against the 
clergy. It is strange every one does not see — 1. 
The sinfulness of railing at the clergy ; if they are blind 
leaders of the blind, then (says our Lord) 1 let them 
alone.' 2. The foolishness of it. It can never do good, 
and has frequently done much harm."* About March, 
1769, tidings came to Ireland of Embury's success in 
jNTew York, and Williams spoke to Wesley (who had had 
an urgent letter, as we have seen, from Thomas Taylor), 
offering to go, and asking his sanction and authority. 
Wesley consented to his going, with the understanding, 
as given above by Dr. Stevens, that he was to " labour 
in subordination with the missionaries who were about 
to be sent out." Wesley's High Church prejudices, 
taken in connection with the above note from his 
Journal as to Williams's preaching at Manorhamilton, 
will sufficiently explain this arrangement. Williams's I 
impatient zeal panted for the moral conflict in the 
New World, and he resolved to be the first of 
Wesley's Itinerants who appeared in America. He 
* Wesley's Journal, III. 343. 1769. The italics are mine. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 139 

was poor, and had no way of paying his passage ; 
but he wrote to his friend Ashton in Dublin, and 
persuaded him to emigrate with him, and pay his 
passage ! Hearing that Ashton was ready to leave, 
Williams hastily left Castlebar, sold his horse to pay 
his debts, and pay his way to Dublin, and, carrying his 
saddle-bags on his arm, set off for the ship, with a loaf 
of bread, a bottle of milk, and no money for his 
passage."* Ashton met him according to promise, and 
cheerfully paid his passage. They arrived in New 
York in August, 1769, " two months at least "t before 
Boardman and Pilmoor. Thus Ireland lost Robert 
Williams, and America gained " the apostle of 
Methodism" in Virginia and North Carolina, the 
spiritual father of Jesse Lee, of William Watters, the 
first native American Itinerant, and of a multitude 
whom no man could number. 

Immediately on his arrival in New York, Williams 
assumed the pastoral charge of the society ; and we find 
in the "Old Book," to which I have so often referred, 
under date, 20th September, 1769 — To cash paid Mr. 
Jaryis for a hat for Mr. Williams, £2 5s. To cash for 
a letter for Mr. Williams, from Dublin, 2s. 8d. ; and 
sundry charges for medicine, flannel, cloak, together 
with £3 16s. 8d. for the support of his horse — the first 
that carried a Methodist Itinerant in America ! By the 
way, beards were not in fashion in the days of the 
primitive Itinerancy; or the church might have saved 

* Jesse Lee's History, p. 27. 
f See Lednum, chap. 8. 



140 



ROBERT WILLIAMS: 



the following bill, under date, 26th July, 1770— To 
cash paid Mr. Mallory, for shaving preachers, £2 5s. 6d. 
There were tl^ee by this date, still Mr. Mallory' s bill 
was smart enough. 

Mr. Wakeley has published a Quarterly ticket, issued 
by Williams, and dated October 1, 1769. The following 
is a copy of this document — the first Methodist ticket 
issued in America : — 

Psalm cxlvii. 11. October 1, 1769. 

" The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in 
those that hope in his mercy." Hannah Dean. 

Robt. Williams, New York. 75. 

This proves beyond all doubt that a member of the Irish 
Conference gave tickets to the Church in New York, at 
least a month before the arrival of Boardman and 
Pilmoor. 

The following summary of the character and labours of 
this devoted Irishman is from the pen of Dr. Stevens : — 
"Williams immediately began his mission in Embury's 
Chapel, and thenceforward, for about six years, was one 
of the most effective pioneers of American Methodism 
— the first Methodist minister in America that published 
a book, the first that married, the first that located, and 
the first that died." We have but little knowledge 
of his career, but sufficient to show that he had the 
fire and heroism of the original Itinerancy. He was 
stationed in John Street Church some time in 1771. 
He laboured successfully with Strawbridge in founding 



THE FIKST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 141 

the new cause in Baltimore County. In the first pub- 
lished Conference Minutes he is appointed to Peters- 
hurgh, Va. "He was the apostle of Mathodism in 
Virginia." He followed Strawbridge in founding it in 
1772, on the eastern shores of Maryland. In the same 
year he appeared in Norfolk, Va. Taking his stand on 
the steps of the Court-House, he collected a congregation 
by singing a hymn, and then preached with a plainness 
and energy so novel among them that they supposed he 
was insane. No one invited him home, in a community 
noted for hospitality — they were afraid of his supposed 
lunacy ; but on hearing him a second time their opinion 
was changed. He was received to their houses, and 
soon after a society was formed in the city, the germ of 
the denomination in the state. In 1773 he travelled 
in various parts of Virginia. Jarrett, an apostolic 
churchman, and afterwards a notable friend of the 
Methodists, encouraged his labours, and entertained him 
a week at his parsonage. J arrett wrote, later, an account 
of "the work of God in these parts" — Sussex and 
Brunswick Counties — and says, " It was chiefly carried 
on by the Methodists. The first of them that appeared 
there was Eobert Williams, who was a plain, active, in- 
defatigable preacher of the gospel. He was greatly 
blessed in detecting the hypocrite, razing false founda- 
tions, and stirring believers up to press after a present 
salvation from the remains of sin. He came to my house 
in the month of March, in the year 1773. The next 
year others of his brethren came, who gathered many 
societies both in this neighbourhood and in other places 



142 



ROEERT WILLIAMS: 



as far as North Carolina. They now began to ride the 
Circuit, and to take care of the societies already formed, 
which were rendered a happy means both of deepening 
and spreading the work of God."* 

" Williams formed the first Circuit of Virginia. A sig- 
nal example of his usefulness (incalculable in its results) 
was the conversion of Jesse Lee. He was "the spiritual 
father" of this heroic Itinerant, the founder of Metho- 
dism in New England. Mr. Lee's parents opened their 
doors for him to preach. They were converted. Two 
of their sons became Methodist ministers, and their 
other children shared largely in the blessings of the 
gospel, which he proclaimed with such naming zeal, 
holy ardour, and great success." f The religious interest 
excited by Williams's labours soon extended into North 
Carolina, and opened the way for the southward ad- 
vancement of Methodism. " He bore back to Phila- 
delphia," says Asbury, " a flaming account of the work 
in Virginia; many of the people were ripe for the gospel, 
and ready to receive us." He returned, taking with 
him a young man named William Watters, who was 
thus ushered into the ministry, and has ever since been 
honoured as the first native American Itinerant. Leav- 
ing him in the field already opened, Williams went 
himself south-westward, as Providence opened the way. 
Subsequently he bore the cross into North Carolina. 
He formed a six weeks' circuit from Petersburg south- 
ward over the Roanoke River, some distance into that 

* Asbury 's Journals, 1776. 

t Wakeley's Heroes of Methodism, p. 174. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 143 



State, and thus became "the apostle of Methodism" in 
North Carolina, as well as Virginia. Like most of the 
Itinerants of that day, he located after his marriage, and 
settled between Norfolk and Suffolk, where, and in all 
the surrounding regions, he continued to preach till his 
death, which occurred on the 26th of September, 1775. 
Asbury was now in the country, and at hand to bury 
the zealous pioneer. He preached his funeral sermon, 
and records in his Journal the highest possible eulogy 
on him. "He has been a very useful, laborious man. 
The Lord gave him many souls to his ministry. Per- 
haps no one in America has been an instrument of 
awakening so many souls as God has awakened by 
him."* "He was a plain, pointed preacher, indefati- 
gable in his labours," says a historian of the Church. 
" That pious servant of the Lord," says Watters, his 
young fellow-traveller in the south. "The name of 
Kobert Williams," says our earliest annalist, "still lives 
in the minds of many of his spiritual children. He 
proved the goodness of his doctrine by his tears in 
public and by his life in private. He spared no pains 
in order to do good; standing on a stump, block, or log, 
he sung, prayed, and preached to hundreds, as they 
passed along from their public resorts or churches. It 
was* common with him after preaching to ask most of 
the persons whom he spoke to some questions about the 
welfare of their souls, and to encourage them to serve 
God." He printed and circulated Wesley's sermons, 
"spreading them through the country, to the great ad- 
* Asbury's Journal, 1775. 



144 



ROBERT WILLIAMS: 



vantage of religion; they opened the way in many places 
for our preachers, where these had never been before. 
Though dead, he yet speaketh by his faithful preaching 
and holy walk."* 

When Asbury first heard of Williams's publishing 
enterprise, he feared that it had been done "for the 
sake of gain," and remarks in his Journal, a This will 
not do. It does by no means look well." He wrote to 
Wesley on the subject, who, in reply, " enjoined that 
Mr. W[illiams] might not print anymore books without 
his consent." Hence, we find the following record on 
the "Minutes:"— 

" I^one of the preachers in America to reprint any of 
Mr. Wesley's books without his authority (when it can 
be gotten), and the consent of their brethren. 

" Eobert Williams to sell the books he has already 
printed, but to print no more, unless under the above 
restrictions." 

Elsewhere Dr. Stevens says — " The allusion to 
Eobert Williams and his books, though brief, is full of 
significance ;" it foreshadows the " Methodist Book 
Concern," in our times one of the most potent arms of 
the Church. A contemporary historian says that, 
" previous to the formation of this rule, Eobert Wil- 
liams, one of the preachers, had reprinted many of 
Mr. Wesley's books, and had spread them through the 
country, to the great advantage of religion. The ser- 
mons, which he printed in small pamphlets, had a very 
good effect, and gave the people great light and under- 
* Jesse Lee. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ITINERANT. 



145 



standing in the nature of the new birth and in the plan 
of salvation ; and, withal, they opened the way in 
many places for our preachers to be invited to preach 
where they had never been before." Thus it appears, 
according to Jesse Lee and Dr. Stevens, the germ of 
the " Eook Concern" also originated with this enter- 
prising Irishman, whose grand fault seems to have 
been, that he had his own share of that mental inde- 
pendence and enterprise which so many of his country- 
men want. Such are the scanty traces that I can 
gather of Eobert Williams, the first of the heroic 
band of Itinerants in America, and one of the grandest 
men Ireland ever gave to American Methodism. His 
grave is unknown ; but, though no marble tells where 
he sleeps, Methodism in North Carolina, JSTew England, 
and Virginia, is his monument. Could the first con- 
tribution from the Irish Conference to American 
Methodism have a more appropriate and enduring 
memorial 1 



After the above appeared in the Irish Evangelist, Dr. Scott 
wrote me a letter, in which he says that he is not altogether 
clear that Williams was of Irish birth, more particularly as he 
is mentioned in Wesley's Journal, under date June 29, 1766, as 
having preached to some thousands of people in the market- 
place at Whitehaven ; and, moreover, Jesse Lee says ' ■ that he 
was an Englishman." I think it likely that he was one of the 
Palatines, as Williams was a prominent name amongst them ; 
or he may have been English or Scotch by birth, or a Welsh- 
man : no one can positively affirm which. But it is certain, 
Jesse Lee is in error when he says that he was not a travelling 
preacher at the time of his emigration, and that he arrived after 
K 



146 



ROBERT WILLIAMS, ETC. 



Boardinan and Pilmoor, and was not sent by Mr. "Wesley. So 
far as our printed " Minutes" can establish a thing of the kind, 
"Williams never had an appointment but in Ireland, prior to his 
emigration ; and was an accredited travelling preacher in con- 
nexion with the Irish Conference of that day. He was sent by 
Mr. "Wesley, too, or at least permitted to go ; and hence is 
printed in the " Minutes" for 1770, for America, with Board- 
man and Pilmoor. If Jesse Lee is wrong in three of his state- 
ments concerning "Williams, may he not be wrong also as to his 
birth ? Perhaps, after all, he may have meant no more than 
that he was not a native American. Thus thousands of Irish 
and Scotch are denominated English in America now. 



glct^otism m gtarglattir. 



" He lies interred in a small cemetery on the farm on which he died, and 
his wife, who died a few years subsequently in Baltimore, was also interred 
by his side ; and the only monument which marks the burying-place of this 
couple, around whom clusters such great historic interest, is a large poplar 
tree which has sprung up between their graves. But the inscription upon 
the tombstone of Sir Christopher "Wren, the great architect of that magni- 
ficent ecclesiastical building, St. Paul's Church, London, might with equal 
propriety be placed upon a stone over the grave of Robert Strawbridge : — 
' Si qtt^eris monumenttjm 

ClRCUMSPICE.' 

For nowhere on this whole continent are there so many living fruits of his 
glorious labours as within sight of that spot. Thus disappears from our 
view this early pioneer of American Methodism ; but not his works. They 
shall never perish, till the heavens are no more." 

Dr. Coggeshall on Stravjbridge. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



DESCRIPTION OF STRAWBRIDGE' S BIRTH-PLACE AT DRUMSNA, 
COUNTY LEITRIM — WESLEY'S VISIT TO DRTJMSNA — MOB IN 
CARRICK-ON-SHANNON IN 1760— STRAWBRIDGE's PERSECUTION 
AND REMOVAL TO SLIGO — PREACHES IN KILMORE, COUNTY 
CAV AN— REMOVES TO TANDRAGEE — MARRIAGE — TRACES OF 
THE STRAWBRIDGE FAMILY AT DRUMSNA — ANNADUFF — 
EMIGRATES TO MARYLAND, ABOUT 1766 — THE " LOG MEETING- 
HOUSE" — PROBABLE DATE WHEN HE COMMENCED HIS LABOURS 
IN AMERICA— TRACES OF HIS FAMILY — HIS LABOURS AND 
POVERTY, AND GREAT SUCCESS — HIS DEATH AND FUNERAL 
— ASBURY'S ANTIPATHY TO HIM — DEFENCE OF STRAW- 
BRIDGE, AND OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICAN METHODISM TO HIM. 

"ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE is another of the 
historic names of American Methodism. Like 
Embury and Robert Williams, he also was from Ire- 
land, and has written his name, with theirs, imperish- 
ably upon the great fabric of American Methodism. 
In this chapter I shall try and give the friendly reader 
a brief outline of the history, character, and services of 
this honoured and devoted man, of whom Ireland has 
no cause to be ashamed. 

He was born at Drummersnave (now called Drumsna), 
not far from Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim. The 



150 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE: 



ground occupied by the family homestead is within the 
bounds of the Boyle Circuit, on the Sligo District. 
When I made up my mind to reprint this series of 
papers, I resolved to spend a day at Drumsna, visit the 
homestead where Strawbridge played when a child, and 
converse with any of the old people who could give 
me any reliable information about himself or his family. 
My kind friend, John Laird, Esq., of Drumshambo, at 
once placed himself and his car at my disposal, and we 
visited every place of interest connected with Straw- 
bridge's honoured name, and every person in the entire 
range of country likely to give us a ray of light on the 
family history. 

Drumsna is a clean, picturesque, and beautiful little 
village on the banks of the Shannon. It has some- 
what of an English look, and suggests the idea of having 
seen better days. Its present inhabitants are principally 
Papists, which will explain its deteriorated appear- 
ance. The Strawbridge family had a noble farm within 
a short distance of the village, and lived in considerable 
comfort, if not affluence. A famous spa well was on 
their property, which attracted visitors from all parts 
of the land. The house is totally destroyed, but its 
site can be distinctly traced, and also that of the 
kitchen garden. The noble elm trees are still standing, 
unimpaired by age, which surrounded the beautiful 
homestead which gave birth to Eobert Strawbridge, 
" the apostle of Methodism" in Maryland and Balti- 
more. The prospect from the door and windows was 
uncommonly fine. I venture to say that a more charm- 



METHODISM IN MARYLAND. 



151 



ing site for a house could not be found in Ireland. 
The house stood on a gentle eminence, in a spacious 
lawn of the richest emerald hue, which inclined grace- 
fully towards the Shannon, a beautiful arm of which 
came right to its foot, forming a magnificent lake before 
the door. Away in the distance may be seen the rich, 
serpentine windings of the noble Shannon as it rolls 
proudly in its course, its bosom dotted with many a 
little island of surpassing beauty. All around lie the 
Leitrim mountains, reminding one of the stability 
which sustains the surrounding loveliness. Here 
Robert Strawbridge was born ! On this very land- 
scape his childish eyes gazed more than a hundred and 
twenty years ago ! I have seen nothing like it since I 
stood at Derrynane, the once beautiful home of Ireland's 
" Liberator," so famous in days of yore. 

Mr. Wesley frequently visited Drumsna, and has 
recorded his impressions of it more than once. As early 
as May 25, 1758, he writes — "I preached at Cleghill 
about one, and then rode on to Drummersnave (Drum- 
sna) — wood, water, fruitful land, and gently-rising 
hills, contribute to make this place a little paradise. 
Mr. Campbell, the proprietor of the whole, resolved to 
make it such; so he planted groves, laid out walks, 
formed the plan of a new town, with a barrack at one 
end, and his own seat at the other. But alas ! death 
stepped in between, and all his plans fell to the ground. 
I lodged at the only 'gentleman's house in the town, 
whose wife adorns the gospel."* 

* Wesley's Journal, II. 426. 



152 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE : 



This extract proves that even at this early date, 
Methodism was not unknown at Drumsna. 

In June, 1760, on the occasion of Wesley's next visit 
to Ireland, he writes — "I rode to Drunimersnave 
(Drumsna), a village delightfully situated. Almost the 
whole town, Protestants and Papists, were present at 
the sermon in the evening, and a great part of them in 
the morning; hut oh, how few of them will bear fruit to 
perfection!"* 

In the case of Strawbridge, we have little or no re- 
liable dates, and no documents illustrative of his life 
previous to his emigration. We can only then spell 
out our way as best we can by comparing one date with 
another, and can only hope to be proximately correct. 
I think it very likely that he heard Wesley on this 
occasion, and that his religious impressions may be 
traced to this visit. Suppose we start from this period 
and try to trace the story of his life. 

There was a peculiarly intense feeling against Metho- 
dism very early exhibited in and around Longford, 
Carrick-on-Shannon, and the neighbourhood. Wesley, 
who generally speaks of the Irish as " the kindest and 
most polite people he ever met with," pays the people 
about this district of country the unenviable compliment 
of being " the rudest, surliest, wildest people that he had 
found since he came into the kingdom."t 

On the occasion of his present visit, he relates the fol- 
lowing circumstance as having occurred at Carrick-on- 

* "Wesley's Journal, III. 6. - 
t Ibid, II. p. 423. 



METHODISM IN MAEYLAND. 



153 



Shannon, which. I may transcribe as illustrative of the 
popular feeling against Methodism in the neighbour- 
hood at this period — "At noon, William Ley, James 
Glassbrook, and I rode to Carrick-upon-Shannon. In 
less than an hour an Esquire and Justice of the Peace 
came down with a drum, and what mob he could gather. 
I went into the garden with the congregation, while he 
was making a speech to his followers in the street. He 
then attacked William Ley (who stood at the door), 
being armed with an halbert and long sword, then 
struck at him, and broke it short upon his wrist. Hav- 
ing made his way through the house to the other door, 
he was at a full stop. J ames Glassbrook held it fast 
on the other side. While he was endeavouring to force 
it open, one told him I was preaching in the garden. 
On this he quitted the door in haste, ran round the 
garden, and with part of his retinue, climbed over the 
wall into the garden, and with a whole volley of oaths 
and curses, declared 'You shall not preach here to-day.' 
I told him 'Sir, I do not intend it; for I have preached 
already.' This made him ready to tear the ground, 
rinding he was not to be reasoned with, I went into 
the house. Soon after he revenged himself on James 
Glassbrook (by breaking the truncheon of his halbert 
on his arm), and on my hat, which he beat and kicked 
most violently j but a gentleman rescued it out of his 
hands, and we rode quietly out of the town."* 

Such being the state of feeling about this neighbour- 
hood, we shall not be surprised to find that shortly after 
* Wesley's Journal, III. 6. 1760. 



154 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE: 



Strawbridge embraced Methodism, he encountered vio- 
lent persecution from his neighbours and immediate 
friends, so that he was obliged to leave Drumsna, and 
take refuge in Sligo, where he joined the Society, and 
where he manifested much of that zeal which afterwards 
distinguished him. I suppose him to have found a 
home in Sligo about the year 1761. The next glimpse 
we get of him is in the County Cavan, where we hear 
of his having frequently preached at Kilmore, and where 
some of those now "fallen asleep" were accustomed to 
speak of him as a man of devoted piety and consider- 
able preaching abilities. One aged saint from this loca- 
lity frequently spoke in high terms of his preaching 
and labours, to my friend John Shillington, Esq., of 
Portadown, and uniformly referred to him with feelings 
of peculiar pleasure. About the year 1763, or 1764, he 
removed to Tandragee, where he was employed for some 
time in erecting some buildings convenient to the town. 
He made Terryhugan, which Wesley denominates " the 
Mother Church of these parts," his head-quarters, and 
resided in an humble cottage amongst the hearty Wes- 
leyans of this favoured locality. From Terryhugan, as 
a centre, he itinerated through the neighbouring country, 
where his labours were highly prized, and where his 
name and memory were cherished by all who knew him. 
About the year 1764, or 1765, he married one of the 
worthy, devoted Wesleyans of Terryhugan — a Miss Piper 
— and shortly after, probably in 1766, with his young 
wife, bid farewell to Ireland, to find, like Embury and 
Williams, his life-work and his final resting-place in the 
"New World. 



METHODISM IN MARYLAND. 



155 



I found no one in Drumsna who had ever even heard 
of Eobert. I ascertained that his father's name was also 
Eobert, and I presume that Eobert, of American fame, 
was his eldest son, who was driven by persecution from 
the family homestead. He had a brother, Gilbert 
Strawbridge, known in Drumsna by the cognomen, 
" Gibby," who succeeded to the family property. I 
met two or three fine old men — one ninety-six years of 
age — who remembered " Gibby" well. He is probably 
from forty to fifty years dead. He had an uncle, 
"Linny" Strawbridge, who was a bachelor, and lived 
to venerable age ; of him also I found very distinct 
traces. " Gibby" had a large family of sons : John, 
Eobert, Lovejoy, and " Gibby," jun., are very distinctly 
remembered by several to whom I spoke. On the 
death of old " Gibby," John succeeded to the family 
property. He and his family seem to have been 
ungodly and most unfortunate. The family property 
has long since passed from their hands, and not one of 
the name is now to be found in the entire country ! 
The last of whom I. could obtain any trace was Andrew, 
a son of John's, who, a few years ago, opened a small 
public-house at Jamestown, about a mile from Drumsna. 
He soon failed, and, like the other members of his 
family, found a home in the far West. 

Annaduff, the interesting little parish church where 
Eobert worshipped when a child, and where his ances- 
tors sleep, is still standing, richly covered with the 
most luxuriant ivy — an impressive and suggestive 
memorial of the past. I examined the grave-yard as 
thoroughly as time would permit, but many of the 



156 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE: 



stones have already mouldered ; many others are 
broken; and the remainder either hopelessly defaced 
by the hand of time or so encrusted with moss as to be 
utterly illegible. 

Strawbridge emigrated to America about the year 
1766,* and ultimately settled at Sam's Creek, Frederic 
County, Maryland. He left Ireland with a view to 
improve his financial circumstances ; but in this he 
seems to have failed, as he lived and died poor. Dr. 
Stevens says that " he was generous, energetic, fiery, 
versatile ; somewhat intractable to authority, and pro- 
bably improvident. In his various migrations he never 
bettered his temporal fortunes ; but he never lost the 
warmth or buoyancy of his religious spirit." Sam's 
Creek was then a backwoods settlement, the entire dis- 
trict having been but recently reclaimed. Yet even 
here Strawbridge speedily opened his house for preach- 
ing, and not long after constructed the famous " Log 
Meeting-house" — the first Methodist chapel in Mary- 
land — about a mile from his own house. It was a 
small, rude structure, twenty-two feet square, without 
windows, door, or regular floor. " The logs were sawed 
on one side for a doorway, and holes were made on the 
other three sides for windows. In this primitive 

* Of course I do not give these figures dogmatically, but 
merely as the nearest approach I can make to the true date. I 
am aware that many high authorities on the other side of the 
Atlantic have claimed a much earlier date for Strawbridge, and 
Methodism in Maryland. I have read all the documents by 
Dr. Roberts, Dr. Hamilton, &c, and have seen no proof, as yet, 
that Strawbridge left Ireland before 1766. 



METHODISM IN MAEYLAND. 



157 



chapel Strawbridge ministered the Word of life, Sab- 
bath, after Sabbath, for many years, itinerating through 
the week through Eastern Maryland, Delaware, Pennsyl- 
vania, and Virginia." " The Sam's Creek Society, con- 
sisting at first of but twelve or fifteen persons, was a 
fountain of good influence to the country and the State. 
It early gave four or five preachers to the Itinerancy. 
Strawbridge founded Methodism "in Baltimore and 
Harford Counties. The first Society in the former was 
formed by him at the house of Daniel (David 1) Evans, 
near the city, and the first chapel of the county was 
erected by it. The first native Methodist preacher of 
the Continent, Eichard Owen,* was one of his converts 
in this country — a man who laboured faithfully aDd 
successfully as a Local Preacher for some years, and 
who entered the Itinerancy at last, and died in it."f It 
is, on the date of this society, formed by Strawbridge, 
at David Evans's, near Baltimore, that the claim of 
Maryland Methodism rests, as to its being the first 
Methodist Society in America. According to Dr. 
Hamilton, David Evans said that, " about the year 
1764, he embraced the Methodist religion under Mr. 
Strawbridge;" and this is about the entire amount of 
evidence in proof of the Maryland case and Eobert 
Strawbridge, as compared with New York and Philip 
Embury. In the case of New York and Embury, we 
have documentary evidence that the Society was formed 

* He is called in the majority of American books, " Owens." 
"Watters was the first native Itinerant 

f Dr. Stevens's History of the M. E. Church, I. 72. 



158 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE: 



in 1766. About this there can be no dispute — while, 
in relation to Maryland and Strawbridge, we have no 
documents whatever that can be called reliable ; and I 
think it is impossible to prove that Strawbridge left 
Ireland before 1766. The New York case can be most 
conclusively made out ; and there is positive proof that 
Methodism was introduced by Strawbridge into Mary- 
land about the same time, or shortly after. But I, for 
one, could not receive the unsupported testimony of an 
old man, who said that, " about the year 1764, he 
embraced the Methodist religion under Mr. Straw- 
bridge," as proof that Methodism was known in Mary- 
land before it was known in ~New York. It is more 
than probable that this 1764 was 1767 or 1768, as the 
phrase " about the year 1764" may include a period of 
three or four years.* 

An old lady, connected with the Evans family, gave 
Dr. Hamilton some interesting particulars concerning 
Strawbridge. " She remembers Strawbridge. He was 
of medium size, dark complexion, black hair, had a very 
sweet voice, and was an excellent singer. He came to 
this country with his wife, nephew, and niece. Our 

* As an illustration of the amount of importance to be 
attached to an old man's memory of the precise date of an 
occurrence, I may mention the following : — I met three old men 
at Drumsna, aged, respectively, seventy-five, eighty-five, and 
ninety-six, who were in full possession of all their faculties. 
Each knew "Gibby" Strawbridge, Eobert's brother, well; but 
one of them thought that he was about thirty years dead ; the 
second said from forty to fifty ; and the third thought that he 
was at least sixty years dead. 



METHODISM IN MARYLAND. 



159 



informant states, also, that Mr. Strawbridge had six 
children — Kobert, George, Theophilus, Jesse, Betsey, and 
Jane. George died, and also two of the other children, 
who were buried under the pulpit of the ' Log Meeting- 
house.' George (Eobert?) and Jesse grew up and became 
carpenters. Mrs. Strawbridge died in Baltimore. Dur- 
ing his life Mr. Strawbridge was poor, and the family 
were often straitened for food; but he was a man of 
strong faith, and would say to his family on leaving 
them, 'Meat will be sent here to-day.'"* 

Dr. Hamilton continues — " The calls upon Mr. Straw- 
bridge to go to distant parts of the country to preach, 
became, in course of time, so frequent and pressing that 
his family were likely to suffer in his absence, so that 
it became a question with him, ' Who will keep the wolf • 
from my door while I am abroad looking after the lost 
sheep V Meanwhile, his friendly neighbours agreed to 
cultivate his little farm without charge, and to see that 
his wife and children wanted for nothing during his 
absence. In this way this zealous servant of Christ 
continued to labour in different parts of Frederic, and 
throughout the length and breadth of Baltimore County, 
breaking up new ground, forming new societies, and 
establishing permanent places for preaching — God work- 
ing through him by the word which he preached. It 
is delightful to look back, after a lapse of ninety years 
and upwards, and recount one by one the long list of 
those who could claim this primitive missionary as the 

* Dr. Hamilton's Discourse on Early Methodism in Maryland, 
especially in Baltimore. 1856. 



160 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE : 



instrument of their salvation, many of them persons of 
intelligence and of influence in the communities in which 
they lived, joining themselves first to Christ, and then 
devoting their substance to build up a godly seed for 
generations following, and of these we recur with no 
ordinary feelings o satisfaction to the sainted parents of 
the late distinguished and able editor of the Christian 
Advocate and Journal, Dr. Bond." 

Dr. Stevens says — "Several preachers were rapidly 
raised up by Strawbridge in his travels in Baltimore 
and Harford Counties : Sater Stephenson, Nathan 
Perigo, Richard Webster and others, and many laymen, 
whose families have been identified with the whole sub- 
sequent progress of Methodism in their respective loca- 
lities, if not in the nation generally. We have frequent 
intimations of Strawbridge's labours and successes in 
the early biographies of Methodism, but they are too 
vague to admit of any consecutive narration of his use- 
ful career. We discover him now penetrating into 
Pennsylvania,* and then arousing the population of the 
Eastern shore of Maryland ; now bearing the standard 
into Baltimore, and there, with Owen, planting it 
successfully in Georgetown, on the Potomac, and in 
other places in Fairfax County, Virginia ■ and by the 
time that the regular Itinerancy comes effectually into 
operation in Maryland, a band of preachers, headed by 

* Dr. Stevens says in a note, that Henry Boehm heard Straw- 
bridge preach at his father's, in Lancaster County, about 1799. 
I suppose this to be a misprint for 1779, as Stravrbridge died 
in 1781. 



METHODISM IN MARYLAND. 



161 



such, men as Watters, Gatch, Bowham, Haggerty, Dur- 
bin, Garrettson, seem to have been prepared, directly or 
indirectly through his instrumentality, for the more 
methodical prosecution of the great cause. At last we 
find his own name in the Minutes (in 1773 and 1775), 
as an Itinerant. But it disappears unaccountably. It 
is probable that his Irish spirit could not brook the stern 
authority of Asbury and his British associates, especially 
the requirement which they and their party so stoutly 
enforced, that the administration of the sacraments by 
Methodist preachers should be suspended. The Revo- 
lution, as we shall hereafter see, not only dissolved the 
English State Church in America, but drove out of the 
country most of the Anglican clergy; the Methodists, 
who had resorted to their churches for the sacraments, 
were therefore left without these means of grace. For 
months, and even years, many societies were destitute 
of them. A considerable party of the Preachers under- 
took to supply them, and a schism was imminent in the 
denomination. The Conference of 1773, unable to 
deter Strawbridge from a course which seemed to him 
justified by the clearest expediency, if not by moral 
necessity, allowed him to persist if he would do so under 
the direction of Eankin, Wesley's 'assistant,' and 
practically the 'Superintendent' of the Church; but 
Strawbridge declined this restriction. He seems to have 
become settled as Preacher to the Sam's Creek and Brush. 
Forest Societies, the later being in Harford County, and 
its chapel the second built in Maryland. We trace him 
at last to the upper part of Long Green, Baltimore 

L 



162 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE: 



county, where an opulent and generous public citizen,* 
who admired his character and sympathized with his 
poverty, gave him a farm, free of rent for life. It was 
while residing here, ' under the shadow of Hampton,' 
his benefactor's mansion, that, in ' one of his visiting 
rounds to his spiritual children, he was taken sick at 
the house of Joseph Wheeler, and died in great peace,' 
probably in the summer of 1781. Owen preached his 
funeral sermon in the open air, to a great throng, 'under 
a tree at the north-west corner of the house.' Among 
the concourse were a number of his old Christian 
neighbours, worshippers in the ' Log Chapel,' to whom 
he had been a Pastor in the wilderness. They bore 

*Dr. Hamilton, in his Discourse, tells us that this gentle- 
man's name was Captain Charles Eidgely, "by whom Straw- 
bridge was greatly esteemed, and who often attended his preach- 
ing. " He also gives the hymn they sung as his spiritual children 
laid the noble emigrant from the banks of the Shannon to sleep. 
It was No. 48 of our Hymn Book : — 

" How blest is our brother, bereft 
Of all that could burden his mind ! 
How easy the soul that has left 
The wearisome body behind !" &c. 

Dr. Hamilton adds, " His grave, and also the grave of Mrs. 
Strawbridge, are in the small burying-ground in the orchard, 
south of the house, perhaps some hundred yards. The graves 
are together, about the centre of the ground, and as if Nature 
were reproving the neglect of the Church, she has raised up a 
large poplar tree between them as a living monument of their 
worth. Standing on the spot, and looking southward a 
distance of six or seven miles, the eye rests on Baltimore." — 
Discourse, &c. 



f 



METHODISM IN MARYLAND. 



163 



him to the tomb, singing as they marched one of those 
rapturous lyrics with which Charles Wesley taught the 
primitive Methodists to triumph over the grave. He 
sleeps in an orchard of the friend at whose house he 
died — one of his own converts — under a tree, from the 
foot of which can be seen the great city which claims 
him as its Methodistic apostle, and which, ever since his 
day, has been pre-eminent among American communi- 
ties for its Methodistic strength and zeal."* 

I have read everything in relation to Strawbridge's 
labours in America on which I could lay my hand, and 
most cordially endorse Dr. Stevens's statement — " The 
scattered allusions to Strawbridge in our early records 
are nearly all favourable to his Christian character, his 
apostolic zeal, his tireless labours, his self-sacrifice, his 
hearty Irish fervour." In fact, I know nothing that 
calls for the slightest explanation in the career of this 
noble pioneer of American Methodism but one point — 
Asbury's decided antipathy to him. On this matter I 
must say a few words, more particularly as I believe 
Strawbridge to have been right, and believe also that 
American Methodism owes the sturdy Irishman not a 
little for the stand which he made against the British 
rule which deprived all our Churches in America of the 
sacraments from the hands of the men who instru- 
mentally won them to Christ. 

Strawbridge had been trained in Irish Methodism, 
and, like the majority of Irish Methodists, had but 
little sympathy with the State Church. He believed a 
* Stevens's History of the M. E. Church, I. 76-78. 



164 ROBERT strawbridge: 

JL 

Methodist minister was, in the New Testament sense, 
a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, consequently, 
fully qualified to administer the sacraments to those 
who placed themselves under his care. He could see 
no reason why a good card-player, or fox-hunter, who, 
perhaps, was half his time drunk, should be, when epis- 
copally ordained, by virtue of such ordination, authorized 
to administer the sacraments, while the same right was 
denied to him and to his brethren who had won wan- 
dering men in thousands to Christ. Eight or wrong, he 
occupied, more than ninety years ago, substantially the 
ground we occupy now in Ireland, in Great Britain, 
and in America. Hence, he travelled through the 
country, forming Societies wherever he could, and re- 
joiced in apostolic success. Fully one-half the Metho-. 
dists in America in his day were in Maryland, and two- 
thirds of them between Maryland and Virginia, where 
himself and Williams, and the evangelists raised up as 
the direct fruit of their ministry, were the labourers. 
He baptized the children of his converts, and gave to 
themselves, in the " Log Meeting-house" and elsewhere, 
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. He did so, if not 
prior to the arrival of Boardman and Pilmoor, cer- 
tainly, coeval with their arrival. Wesley, whose grand 
weakness all through was his Church of England 
tendencies, endeavoured to force upon American 
Methodism his own peculiar sympathies in favour of 
that section of the Church, and hence he instructed 
Rankin and his other " assistants" in America not to 
baptize or administer the Lord's Supper in the Societies 



METHODISM IN MARYLAND. 165 

on any account, but to send all their converts to the 
ministers of the State Church, many of whom, as in 
England and Ireland, were notoriously wicked. We 
should find it difficult to believe such a marvellous fact 
but that the evidence is palpable as the sun light. 
The following extracts from the "Minutes" of the 
American Conference put the matter beyond dispute : — 

" 1. Every preacher, who acts in connexion with 
Mr. Wesley and the brethren who labour in America, 
is strictly to avoid administering the ordinances of 
baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

" 2. All the people among whom we labour to be 
earnestly exhorted to attend the Church, and to receive 
the ordinances there ; but in a particular manner to 
press the people in Maryland and Virginia to the 
observance of this Minute?* 

Asbury and all the men trained in England went 
with Wesley's view, and encouraged and advocated in 
America this humble submission on the part of the 
Methodists to the State Church, to which they were 
trained in England. But Strawbridge was inflexible 
on the other side. He contended sturdily in the Con- 
ference for the right of our Churches to the sacraments 
from the hands of their own ministry, and for the 
right of the ministers to administer them, and refused 
to be deterred by either Asbury or Eankin from acting 
in harmony with his conscientious convictions. 

* Minutes of the Annual Conference of the M. E. Church, I. 
p. 5. New York, 1840. The italics are mine. 



166 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE: 



A serious conflict ensued in the Conference ; the 
above resolutions were made absolute, with a conces- 
sion in favour of the veteran evangelist, as appears from 
Asbury' s Journal, to the following effect : — " That no 
preacher in our Connexion shall be permitted to 
administer the ordinances, except Mr. Strawbridge, 
and he under the particular direction of the assistant " 
(Eankin.) Dr. Stevens says, " A concession so singular 
shows the extraordinary consideration in which Straw- 
bridge was held, the influence he had obtained over the 
Societies in Maryland and Virginia, perhaps also the 
conscious necessity of the independent administration 
of the sacraments in that chief field of the denomina- 
tion." But great as was this concession, it did not meet 
Strawbridge's view. Asbury says, " I read a part of 
our "Minutes," to see if Brother Strawbridge would 
conform, but he appeared to be inflexible. He would 
not administer the ordinances under our direction at 
all." Ultimately the name of the headstrong evangelist 
was dropped from the "Minutes," but to the end of 
his life he held on the same course. The subject came 
up again and again, and led to increasing contention, 
and " at last," says the historian of American Method- 
ism, " providentially gave birth to the organization of 
the ' Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States 
of America.'" Does it not appear that the inflexible 
resolution of this Irish evangelist, which so exasperated 
Asbury, arose from a keener and deeper insight into the 
wants and noble future of American Methodism than 
Asbury or any of his countrymen had ? And would 



METHODISM IN MARYLAND. 



167 



not Methodism in Maryland and in the United States 
be a different thing to-day but for Eobert Straw- 
bridge's sturdy principle, and his Methodist training in 
Ireland 1 

" Asbury's prejudice against Strawbridge for his 
Hibernian independence in the sacramental controversy 
continued to the last. ' He is no more/ wrote the great 
but rigorous bishop, ' he is no more ; upon the whole, 
I am inclined to think the Lord took him away in 
judgment, because he was in a way to do hurt to his 
cause, and that he saved him in mercy because from his 
death-bed conversation he appears to have had hope in 
his end. Owen, who knew him better, and loved him 
as a son, had no such equivocal opinion of his end. 
He proclaimed, as his text, over the coffin of the devoted, 
though headstrong evangelist, 'I heard a voice from 
heaven saying unto me, Write: Blessed are the dead 
which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the 
Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their 
works do follow them.'"* Asbury and Straw^bridge have 
long since met in the spirit-land, where there is no con- 
flict of opinion; and the worthy Bishop lived to see the 
entire Church come round to the headstrong Irishman's 
view, himself being amongst the most prominent ad- 
vocates of the change. 



The following extract from a letter to my friend, the 
Eev. Dr. Scott, by the Bev. Dr. Hamilton, of Balti- 

* Stevens's History of the M. E. Church, I. 79. 



168 



ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE: 



more, is of great value, as illustrating the connexion 
between Irish and American Methodism in Baltimore : — 

" There are two names connected with early Methodism in 
Baltimore which I ought to mention — "William Hawkins and 
James M 'Cannon — both class-leaders, and appointed by Bishop 
Asbnry on his first visit to our city. They were from Ireland, 
and men of great influence in their day. Another, Edward 
Drumgoole,* who joined the Conference in the year 1774, and 
laboured in Baltimore Circuit with George Shadford and 
Robert Lindsay, also an Irishman. + Mr. Drumgoole having 
married, took a location in 1776, and settled in Brunswick 
County, Ya., where he raised a family of children, one of 
whom, the Hon. Edward Drumgoole, became a distinguished 
lawyer, and was a member of the United States Congress for 
years. Michael Laird joined the Conference held in Balti- 
more, May the 8th, 1786. He was from the same town 
(Drumsna) with Strawbridge, and his parents were amongst the 
earliest converts to Methodism in that part of Ireland, and his 
father was a class-leader for many years. John Ragan, a native 
of Ireland. He came to America soon after the peace of 1783, 
and travelled as an Itinerant preacher for eight years, mostly in 
Maryland, Nova Scotia, and New Jersey. Lasley Mathews — 
a remarkable man. He was from Ireland, and of Roman 
Catholic parents. He joined the Baltimore Conference in 1786, 
and died 24th of March, 1813. His last words were— ' Glory ! 
Praise Him ! My Jesus, come ! ' Andrew Hemphill, another 

* Drumgoole was converted from Popery in Ireland in 1770, and, on 
coming to Baltimore, brought a letter to his countryman, Strawbridge, 
announcing the fact of his having read his recantation in Ireland. He was 
probably from about Drumsna.— (W. C.) 

t Lindsay, on his return from America, travelled ten years in Ireland, 
and ultimately settled in the East Indies. I have a letter in my possession 
in which the writer states that he met a class and preached in India, and 
that his correspondence with Dr. Coke led to the establishment of our 
missions in the Bast Indies. — (W. C.) 



METHODISM IN MARYLAND. 



169 



glorious Irish Methodist preacher, never to be forgotten by the 
Baltimore Conference. And last, but not least, William 
Kyland, a man of mark and might. Mr. Kyland came to this 
country a Local Preacher, and united with the Baltimore Con- 
ference in 1802. No man of his time occupied a larger space 
in public estimation as a preacher. Mr. Pinkney, Attorney- 
General of the United States, and for a time Minister to the 
Court of St. Petersburgh, looked upon him as the most impres- 
sive and eloquent man he had ever heard preach. Mr. Eyland 
was often chosen Chaplain to Congress, and received from the 
President of the United States (General Jackson) the appoint- 
ment of Chaplain to the Navy, which office he continued to 
hold to the time of his death. In looking over the Minutes 
of Conference for 1791-92, I find the names of Michael Laird 
and John S imm ons put down for Bath Circuit, Ya., and in 
1792, this Minute : — ' Who are under a location through weak- 
ness of body or family concerns ? Answer — Michael Laird.' 
This is the last we hear of this excellent man as an Itinerant 
preacher ; but a nephew, Mr. Michael Laird, who is still alive 
and residing in Philadelphia (1859), writes me that his uncle 
continued to hold on his way as a faithful Christian and useful 
Local Preacher until the time of his death. 

" Thus, my dear brother, I have given you a few facts in refer- 
ence to the men who came to us in our infancy from old Ire- 
land — the land of my own dear Father and Mother 

It is but simple justice to say that, from the rise of Methodism 
in Baltimore to the present time, a considerable proportion of 
our most pious and useful members have been Irishmen. 
William Hawkins and James M 'Cannon were the first class- 
leaders in Baltimore. The Kelsos, three brothers ; the Arm- 
strongs, Eobert and Thomas, still living (1859) ; the Buckles, 
two brothers ; James Morrison, Alexander Bussell — of precious 
memory — and many others of equal worth now in our midst, or 
gone to their final reward in heaven." 



1% 

&uijarb Boarirmait 



" Richard Boardman, a pious, good-natured, sensible man, greatly 
beloved of all that knew him. He was one of the two first that freely 
offered themselves to the services of our brethTen in America. He died of 
an apoplectic fit, and preached the night before his death. It seems he 
might have been eminently useful ; but good is the will of the Lord." — 
John Wesley, in the " Minutes" for 1783. 



CHAPTER IX. 



LEEDS CONFERENCE OF 1769, AND APPOINTMENT OF BOARD MAN 
AND PILMOOR— CONVERSION OF MARY REDFERN — PERILOUS 
PASSAGE TO AMERICA — BOARDMAN's SERVICES IN AMERICA— 
RETURNED HOME IN 1774 — APPOINTED TO LONDONDERRY — 
HIS SERVICES IN IRELAND — DEATH IN CORK IN 1782 — HIS 
TOMB AT ST. FIN BARRE's. 

TTTESLEY, as we have seen, had received an im- 



" " portant letter from Thomas Taylor in ]N"ew York, 
stating the progress of the infant Church under 
Embury and Captain Webb, and most earnestly re- 
questing the appointment of a minister of a suitable 
type to watch over the little flock. Hp immediately 
resolved on sending one or more at the ensuing English 
Conference, and, in the interval, probably wrote to 
Hopper, with a view to induce him to undertake the 
superintendence of the rising cause in the New World. 
Meantime, Robekt Williams had left Castlebar, and 
with Wesley's concurrence, if not by his formal ap- 
pointment, was on his way to that glorious field of 
labour in which he won unwitheriug honour. The 
Conference met in Leeds, on Tuesday, August 1, 1769, 
and in due time Wesley brought forward the American 
claim, and wished some one or more to volunteer for 
the arduous enterprise. But all were silent. JSTot one 




174 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



of the heroic band was prepared to brave the dangers 
of the passage, and the still more formidable discourage- 
ments identified with the work itself. Wesley was 
bitterly disappointed, and at five o'clock on the follow- 
ing morning preached before the Conference from the 
words, " I have nourished and brought up children, 
and they have rebelled against me." At the re- 
assembling of the Conference same day, he again pro- 
posed the question — " Who is willing to go to assist our 
brethren in America?" And Kichard Boardman and 
Joseph Pilmoor immediately volunteered.* In the 
" British Minutes" of that year we read as follows : — 

"Question 13 — We have a pressing call from our 
brethren at New York (who have built a preaching- 
house) to come over and help them. Who is willing 
to go 1 Answer — Richard Boardman and Joseph Pil- 
moor. 

" Question 14 — What can we do further in token of 
our brotherly love 1 Answer — Let us now make a col- 
lection among ourselves. (This was immediately done ; 
and out of it £50 were allotted towards the payment of 
their debt, and about £20 given to our brethren for 
their passage." t) 

* Speech of the Rev. Charles Prest at Paris, October, 25, 
1863, as quoted in Stevens's History of the M. E. Church, I. 95. 

f Minutes of British Conference. New Edit. Vol. I. p. 86. 
It appears from Wakeley's Lost Chapters that a good part of the 
£50 towards the chapel debt was in Wesley's Notes and Ser- 
mons, which were sold in New York and Philadelphia on behalf 
of the debt. 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



175 



Boardman was now just thirty-one years of age, 
six of which he had spent amid the toils and triumphs 
of the Itinerancy in England, principally in York- 
shire. He was a good-natured, sensible man, deeply 
devoted, who was not afraid of hard work ; but 
not remarkable, like Asbury, for force of character and 
great administrative ability. Pilmoor was still younger, 
having been but four years in the Itinerancy. They 
sailed from Bristol in August, and, after a most fearful 
passage of nine weeks, during which " it seemed that 
the wind and waves were swayed by the ' prince of the 
power of the air' in opposition to a mission so preg- 
nant with moral consequences," arrived at Gloucester 
Point, south of Philadelphia, October the 24th, 1769. 

In the "Minutes" of 1769, as quoted above, Beard- 
man's name stands first, as Wesley's " assistant" or 
Superintendent in America ; but in the following year 
the appointment reads as follows: — 50. America — 
Joseph Pilmoor, Eichard Boardman, Eobert Williams, 
John King. 

Whether this arrangement was accidental or other- 
wise in 1770, it was reversed in 1771, and Boardman 
was made " assistant," and, in point of fact, was 
Wesley's first American Superintendent. 

It is singular that, like in the case of Captain Webb 
and Eobert Williams, we have no record of the place 
of his birth, and it will probably remain for ever un- 
known. Dr. Stevens, whose industry can only be ex- 
ceeded by his genius, gives him to Ireland, though on 
what authority he does not say, and we question his 



176 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



accuracy in this instance. But, be this as it may, wher- 
ever Boardrnan found a cradle, a large proportion of 
his life-work and his final resting-place till the morning 
of the resurrection were found in Ireland, and hence 
this little Book would be most incomplete without 
some reference to his honoured name. 

He entered the Itinerancy in 1763, and spent the 
intervening time till his appointment to America in 
England, where he was eminently devoted, laborious, 
and successful. One circumstance worth narrating 
here connects his name imperishably with British 
Methodism. While on his way to Bristol to embark 
for America he spent a night at Monyash, in Derby- 
shire, and preached in an humble Methodist cottage, 
from the praver of Jabez (1 Chron. iv., 9, 10). In the 
congregation was a young woman, Mary Eedfern, who 
was anxiously seeking the Saviour, and the message 
from the lips of the stranger proved balm to her 
wounded spirit. Some years after she married "William 
Bunting, a Methodist layman, and in remembrance of 
Boardman's sermon gave the name of Jabez Bunting 
to her first-born child — " a memento of her gratitude, 
and a prophecy of his history." 

Boardman's name is imperishable also in American 
Methodism. As Wesley's first Superintendent in 
America, and the spiritual father of hundreds, he 
itinerated through the entire country around New 
York and Philadelphia, doing the work of an evangelist 
during more than four years, until on the breaking out 
of the Eevolutionary war he returned home with 



RICHARD BOARD MAN. 



177 



Pilnioor in 1 7 74. A single extract will give the friendly 
reader some idea of the spirit in which Boardman pro- 
secuted his glorious work: — "It pleases God to carry 
on his work amongst us. Within this month we have 
had a great awakening here. Many begin to believe 
the report, and to some the arm of the Lord is revealed. 
This last month we have had near thirty added to the 
Society, five of whom have received a clear sense of the 
pardoning love of God. We have in this city some of 
the best preachers (both in. the English and Dutch 
Churches) that are in America. Yet God works by 
whom he will work. I have lately been much comforted 
by the death of some poor negroes, who have gone off 
the stage of time rejoicing in the God of their salvation. 
I asked one on the point of death, ' Are you afraid to 
die V 1 Oh, no,' said she. ' I have my blessed Saviour 
in my heart. I should be glad to die. I want to be 
gone, that I may be with him for ever. I know that 
he loves me, and I feel that I love him with all my 
heart.' She continued to declare the great things 
God had done for her soul to the astonishment of many, 
till the Lord took her to himself. Several more seem 
just ready to be gone, longing for the happy time when 
mortality shall be swallowed up of life. I bless God 
I find, in general, my soul happy, though much tried 
and tempted."* 

When Boardman and Pilmoor saw that war was in- 
evitable, being loyal to the British Government, they 

* Letter to Wesley, April, 1771, as published in Stevens's 
History of M. E. Church, I. p. 104. 
M 



178 



RICHARD BOARD MAN. 



resolved to return home, and left America on Sunday, 
January 2, 1774, " after commending the Americans to 
God." "They left 2,073 members in the Societies, 10 
regularly-organized circuits, and 17 preachers."* They 
do not seem to have been in any particular hurry home, 
as they remained fully six months after the Conference, 
and after Boardman had been appointed superintendent 
of the Londonderry Circuit, t On coming home he 

* Dr. Stevens's History of M. E. Church, I. p. 166. 

t Pilmoor, on leaving America, retired from our work, and in 
the " Minutes" for 1774 he is said to have " desisted from tra- 
velling." Butin 1776 we find his name again on the " Minutes," 
and for the ensuing eight years, for various prominent stations 
in England, Scotland, and Ireland. In 1784 it appears for the 
last time for York, and disappears without note from the 
"Minutes" for 1785. Wesley had executed the "Deed of 
Declaration," in February, 1784 ; he was offended at the omis- 
sion of his name, left, and joined the Established Church. He 
subsequently returned to America, and became Eector of Ann 
Street Church, New York, and subsequently of St. Paul's 
Church, Philadelphia. He became a Doctor of Divinity, and 
died in a green old age, greatly respected. He had a great love 
for Methodism to the last, and often gave his pulpit to Asbury, 
Coke, and others of his old friends, and to the end of his life 
subscribed to the Old Preachers' Fund. At the Conference of 
1804, in old John Street Church, New York, a tall, fine-looking, 
dignified old gentleman came into the house, and walked to 
where Bishop Asbury was sitting. Asbury arose, shook hands 
with him, and then, in his own way, said, as he introduced him 
to the Conference, "This is Brother Pilmoor, who used to 
preach in this pulpit under the direction of Mr. John "Wesley."* 
Mr. Pilmoor seemed a little embarrassed, and bowed respect- 



* Wakeley. 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



179 



went to his circuit at Londonderry, and at the Con- 
ference of 1775 was re-appointed to the same field of 
labour. The years 1776 and 1777 were spent in Cork ; 
1778 and 1779 in Limerick amongst the Palatines ; and 
1780 in London. In 1781 we find him again in 
Limerick, amongst his old friends the Palatines, with 
the eccentric John Cricket, and at the Conference of 
1782 he was appointed to Cork with Zachariah Yew- 
dall. This proved a final appointment. Within a few 
days after his arrival in Cork, Wesley's first American 
" assistant" finished his course with joy! Though we 
have no record of his faithful and devoted labours in 
America, and in England, and Ireland, happily we have 
full and interesting particulars of his death, supplied in 

fully, and then paid his annual subscription to the Preachers' 
Fund, and retired. It was a pity he left the Church of his early 
choice, as he had the heart and soul of a Methodist preacher, 
and much of the fire of the primitive Itinerancy, as the follow- 
ing incident of his Methodistic life will prove : — At Charleston, 
while preaching in the theatre, suddenly the table used by him 
for a pulpit, with the chair he occupied, disappeared through a 
trap-door into the cellar. Some rude wags, of the baser sort, had 
contrived the trick as a practical joke. Nothing discouraged, 
however, the preacher, springing upon the stage with the table 
in his hands, invited the audience to the adjoining yard, adding, 
pleasantly, " Come on my friends, we will, by the grace of God, 
defeat the devil this time, and not be driven by him from our 
work," and then quietly finished his discourse.* The last 
glimpse we get of him is in a record in Asbury's Journal, dated 
Wilmington, Delaware, April 3, 1814: — "Joseph Pilmoor is 
yet alive, and preaches three times every Sabbath. " 

* Stevens's History of the M. E. Church, I. p. 108. 



180 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



part by Mr. Yewdall, and in part by Mr. Atmore. Mr. 
Atmore says — " Mr. Boardrnan was greatly beloved and 
universally respected by the people wherever his lot was 
cast. His ministerial labours were much owned of 
God, both in Europe and America. He finished his 
course, by an apoplectic fit, at Cork, in Ireland. The 
following are the circumstances which attended the 
death of this man of God : — 

" Sunday, Sept. 29, 1782, Mr. Boardrnan having been 
eleven days in Cork, was going out to dinner. As he 
was walking, he was suddenly struck blind, so that he 
could not find his way, till one of our friends met him, 
and took him by the hand. Soon after he seemed to 
recover himself, and sat down to dinner, but quickly 
after he had a fit, which deprived him both of his 
speech and understanding. A physician was called in, 
who apprehended there was no immediate danger. 
Monday he seemed to be perfectly well, and preached 
both that and the following evening. His mind was 
calm and serene, and no way anxious about either life 
or death. On Friday morning he was present at the In- 
tercession, and was observed to pray with an uncommon 
degree of freedom and power. At three o'clock he 
went out to dine, but as soon as he came into the house 
he sank down insensible. He was then conducted back 
in a carriage to his own house, and at about nine o'clock 
in the evening he expired in the arms of two of his 
brethren, and in the presence of many of his friends, 
who commended him to God with sorrowful hearts and 
streaming eyes. 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



181 



"The Sunday before his death he preached from 
i Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.' It was 
a very solemn meeting, and a reverential awe filled the 
hearts of the congregation. In his last prayer at the 
Intercession, on Friday, he prayed fervently for the 
people, and begged that if this was to be their last 
meeting on earth they might have a happy meeting in 
the realms of light. It is remarkable that, when he was 
leaving Limerick, he told Mrs. Boardman that he should 
die in Cork ! But this was no concern to him, as he 
knew for him to live was Christ, and to die eternal 
gain. To him sudden death was sudden glory !"* 

Mr. Yewdall's account is substantially the same, with 
some points of additional interest. I give it entire, as 
every ray of light connected with the heroic Boardman 
in life or death is precious to Irish Methodists. Mr. 
Yewdall says : — " In the month of December (1781) I 
went to Dublin to assist Mr. Pilmoor (who was then 
Superintendent.) Here I experienced the most happy 
Christmas-day morning I had ever known. The 
service began (according to custom) at four o'clock, and 
continued till daylight, in singing, prayer, and exhorta- 
tion. I suppose there were near fourteen hundred 
persons present. After spending above seven weeks in 
the city among the most friendly, hospitable people I 
ever knew, I returned to my circuit, where I continued 
till the Dublin Conference in July, 1782, and was then 
appointed with Mr. Boardman for Cork. 

" I got into my circuit the week after the Conference, 
* Atmore's Methodist Memorial, p. 58, 59. 1801. 



182 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



and was glad to meet with, a friendly people and a large 
congregation. Mr. Boardman tarried at Limerick till 
the latter end of September, and then came to Cork, 
where he had laboured before, and was universally- 
known and beloved by the people, who were anxious 
for his coming, and in great expectation that his 
ministry would be successful. On the Sabbath-day 
morning after his arrival he preached from Job xiii, 15 
— 'Though, he slay me, yet will I trust in him,' but 
was not able to preach in the evening. The physician 
made light of the disorder, although there were evident 
symptoms of an approaching apoplexy, so that no 
means were made use of to prevent what soon happened. 
Mr. Boardman being something better next day, con- 
tinued to preach every evening as usual till Friday, 
when he attended the Intercession at noon.* He was 
observed to pray with uncommon fervour for the success 
of the Gospel and for his brethren in the ministry. 
After the meeting he went to a friend's house in the 
city. As soon as he got there he lost the use of his 
speech, and with some difficulty was conveyed to his 
lodging in a chaise. From that time he sunk into a 
state of insensibility, and about nine o'clock was re- 
leased from all his sufferings, in the forty-fifth year of 
his age. Mr. Boardman had preached the Gospel with 
much success a considerable number of years in various 
parts of Britain, Ireland, and America. He was an ex- 

* A special prayer-meeting, held on Friday, at noon, in Cork, 
at that time, and for many years, with reference to the revival 
and progress of religion, and the labours of the coming Sabbath. 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



183 



cellent and useful preacher, a kind friend, and of an 
amiable, engaging disposition. His life was devoted to 
the service of God, and employed in promoting the 
salvation of souls, and he is now reaping the reward of 
his labours. 

" At the time of Mr. Boardman's death, I was at 
Bandon keeping a watchnight,* but a messenger was 
waiting next morning at my chamber door with the 
awful tidings. "When I got to Cork I found our friends 
involved in sorrow, and lamenting their loss, particularly 
his widow. They had been married only thirteen 
months, and had one [son, who soon after became 
an orphan by the death of his mother. On the Lord's 
day, at the request of our friends, I preached Mr. 
Boardman's funeral sermon, to a very crowded audience. 
His remains were placed at the foot of the pulpit, which 
added to the solemnity of the occasion. In my retire- 
ment before preaching, the work I was to enter upon 
seemed too much for my feelings ; but the Lord saw 
my tears and heard my cries; he lifted me up and 
strengthened me for the arduous task. Indeed, I have 
no great opinion of the discourse I delivered, but my 
aim was to please God and profit the people. Next 
morning we attended his remains to St. Barry's church- 
yard,t singing hymns adapted to the occasion as we 

* In early Methodism, a "Watchnight" service was held fre- 
quently during the year, and not exclusively on the last night 
of the year, as in modern times. 

f Mr. Boardman is the only one of the noble band connected 
with the origin and early triumphs of Methodism in America to 
whom Ireland has had the honour of giving a grave. Embury, 



184 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



passed through, the streets, accompanied by a great 
multitude of serious people."* 

His death was eminently overruled for good. Many 
who heard his funeral sermon were convinced of sin, 
and within a brief period about two hundred members 
were added to the church. The ministry of Andrew 
Blair, who succeeded Mr. Eoardman, was remarkably 
owned of God, and before the ensuing Conference the 
Church at Cork, fired with the primitive Methodist 
zeal, had established Methodism at Youghal, Dunman- 
way, Bantry, and Skibbereen, and rejoiced with the 
joy of harvest. 

Strawbridge, and "Williams found a final resting-place, as we 
have seen, in the United States ; Paul Heck and his noble wife, 
and their children, in Canada ; Bankin and others, with the 
veteran Captain Webb, in England. He lies in the churchyard 
attached to the cathedral of St. Fin Barre (called St. Barry's by 
Mr. Yewdall), and his grave is an object of considerable interest to 
Methodists from America when visiting Cork. Those who ac- 
companied Bishop Simpson and Dr. M'Clintock to Boardman's 
grave, during the Conference of 1857, will never forget that 
Saturday evening. I trust the plan for the new cathedral will 
not interfere with the spot where Boardman sleeps, but that his 
grave will continue to be an object of interest in Cork long as 
time shall last. Those who are curious as to the history of St. 
Fin Barre and the antiquities of the cathedral, will find much 
valuable information in A Lecture on the History of the Bishops 
of Cork and Cathedral of St. Fin Barre. By Bichard Caulfield, 
B.A. (Cork : Purcell & Co., 1864), which will be read with 
interest, even by those who entertain widely different opinions 
from the writer in relation to Gothic architecture and "foil 
choral service" as promotive of the life of God in the soul. 



* The Arminian Magazine, 1795, p. 270. 



RICHARD BOARDMAN. 



185 



Thus, in the meridian of his strength and usefulness, 
at the early age of forty-four, Eichard Boardman 
passed from earth to heaven. It is interesting to read 
that his brave companions sung several of Charles 
Wesley's noble lyrics through the streets as they ac- 
companied the remains of the departed warrior to the 
solitude of the tomb. Over his remains a plain slab 
has been placed by the Methodists of that day, with 
the following inscription : — 

MR. RICHARD BOARDMAN 

Departed this Life, October 4, 1782, cetatis 44- 

Beneath this stone the dust of Boardman lies, 
His pious soul has soared above the skies j 
"With eloquence divine he preached the "Word 
To multitudes, and turned them to the Lord. 
His bright example strengthened what he taught, 
And devils trembled when for Christ he fought ; 
With truth and Christian zeal he nations fired, 
And all who knew him mourned when he expired. 




% 

Ittlani 

©right ri llfcfjm&xsm in Canada. 



" Vast results were to follow ; gigantic labourers to appear in the open- 
ing wilderness ; circuits and societies to keep pace with the advancing 
frontier, and to reach eastward to Quebec ; Indian missions to arise ; 
Methodist chapels, many of them elegant edifices, to dot the country ; a 
Book concern, periodical organ, a University and academies to be provided, 
and Methodism to become numerically the predominant faith of the people, 
comprising one-fourth of the population" (of Canada). — Dr. Stevens's 
Woman of Methodism, p. 197. 



CHAPTEE X. 



mxb tin 

Origin: ai glefljabism hx Caitaim* 

METHODISM IN CANADA, AS IN THE UNITED STATES, THE CHILD 
OF IRISH METHODISM— FIRST CLASS IN CANADA, AND MRS, 
EMBURY, PAUL AND BARBARA HECK — GEORGE NEAL, HIS 
CHARACTER AND SERVICES — JAMES M'CARTY, HIS CHARACTER 
AND MARTYRDOM — FATE OF HIS PERSECUTORS — WILLIAM 
LOSEE — FIRST METHODIST CHAPEL IN ADOLPHUSTOWN IN 
1792, AND IRISH NAMES AS SUBSCRIBERS — DEATH OF PAUL 
AND BARBARA HECK — FAMILIES OF EMBURY AND HECK AND 
CANADIAN METHODISM— " THE OLD BLUE CHURCH," AUGUSTA, 
AND THE GEAYE OF PAUL AND BARBARA HECK — CANADIAN 
METHODISM, AND EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND — METHODISM 
IN CANADA IN 1866. 

Tl^ this Chapter I propose briefly to illustrate the 
connexion between Irish. Methodism and the origin 
of Methodism in Canada. From the preceding Chapters 
the reader can form some faint conception of the ser- 
vices of Irish Methodism in relation to the origin and 
triumphs of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 
United States ; but it is not so generally known that 
the Methodist Church in Canada is also the child of 
Irish Methodism, and identified with the " old country" 
just as closely and as imperishably as the Methodist 



190 IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 

Episcopal Church of the United States. It would 
require a considerable volume to trace the influence of 
Irish Methodism in Methodism in Canada from its 
origin to the present day ; and such a volume could 
only be exceeded in interest by a similar volume illus- 
trative of the same idea in relation to Episcopal 
Methodism in the States. A book worthy of the sub- 
ject could not possibly be written by any one on our 
side of the Atlantic, or by any one on the American 
side without vast labour ; but would not the result 
more than compensate for the labour % Perhaps we 
shall have such a book by-and-by, both from the States 
and Canada, as one of the results of the present Cen- 
tenary celebration. The study is one of great interest, 
as illustrative of the providence of God. How little 
even those who have studied the subject know of the 
germinant power and far-reaching influence of Irish 
Methodism ! 

French Canada was conquered by the British, under 
General Wolfe, in 1759, just twelve months before 
Embury's emigration to New York. The conquest was 
ratified by treaty in 1763, and, from that period till the 
present, Canada has been an important and growing 
portion of the Colonial empire of Britain. We have 
seen that God in His providence overruled the emigra- 
tion of Embury and Barbara Heck from Ireland, to the 
origination of Methodism in the States in 1766, and 
we trace the same guiding Hand in connexion with the 
same honoured names in the origin of Methodism in 
Canada. 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



191 



After Embury's death in 1773, his widow married 
John Lawrence, from Ireland, and, on the breaking out 
of the Revolutionary war shortly after, with David 
Embury (Philip's brother), Paul and Barbara Heck, 
and many more of the Irish Palatines from Ashgrove, 
emigrated to Lower Canada, where they settled in the 
first instance about Montreal, and ultimately about 
Augusta, in Upper Canada. " Here their peculiar 
work, their ' providential mission,' as I have ven- 
tured to call it, was resumed. They were still pioneers 
and founders of Methodism ; and in the house of John 
and Catherine Lawrence (the widow of Embury) was 
organized the first 'Class' of Augusta, and Samuel 
Embury, the son of Philip, was its first Leader. Paul 
and Barbara Heck were among its first members, and 
their three sons were also recorded on its roll. They 
were thus to anticipate, and, in part, prepare the way 
for the Methodist Itinerancy in Canada, as they had at 
New York city and in Northern New York ; for 
William Losee, the first regular Methodist preacher in 
Canada, did not enter the province till 1790. The 
germ of Canadian Methodism was planted by these 
memorable families five or six years before Losee's 
arrival."* 

Some years before Losee's arrival, George Neal, an 
Irish local preacher, and major of a cavalry regiment of 
the British army, crossed the Niagara River, at Queens- 
town, and commenced preaching in Canada. Dr. 
Bangs, who early travelled the circuits of that region, 
* Dr. Stevens's Woman of Methodism, p. 193, 194. 



192 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



says, " He was a holy man of God, and an able minister 
of the New Testament. His word was blessed to the 
awakening and conversion of many souls, and he was 
always spoken of by the people with great affection and 
veneration as the pioneer of Methodism in that country. 
Among those who first joined the society may be men- 
tioned Christian Warner, who lived near what is now 
called St. David's, and became a class-leader. His 
house was a home for the preachers and for preaching 
for many years. The first Methodist meeting-house 
erected in that part of the country was in his neighbour- 
hood. Neal lived to see large and flourishing societies 
established through all that country, and at length was 
gathered to his fathers in a good old age."* For some 
years this brave Irish military evangelist held up the 
Methodistic banner alone — the solitary Methodist 
preacher in all Canada; but in 1788, two other noble 
pioneers entered the field, one of whom — James 
M'Carty — was an Irishman, from the United States, 
who nobly lost his life as a martyr in the service of 
Canadian Methodism. Three accounts of the circum- 
stances connected with the death of this devoted man 
now lie before me — one written in 1852, by the Eev. 
P. Douglass Gorrie, of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; 
a second, by the Eev. George ¥. Playter, the historian 
of Methodism in Canada; and the third, by Dr. Stevens. 
I give the summary by Dr. Stevens : — "In the same 
year, James M'Carty, an Irishman, from the United 

* Dr. Bangs's History of the M. E. Church, II. 122, as quoted 
by Dr. Stevens 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



193 



States, and a convert of Whitefield's ministry, reached 
Kingston, and passed on to Ernestown, where he found 
out Kobert Perry, and other lay Methodists, and began 
immediately to hold religious meetings in their log- 
cabins. He is described as a man of attractive 
manners and speech, and large numbers attended his 
preaching, probably the first the settlers had heard 
since they came into Canada. A great effect was 
apparent. Many were brought to a knowledge of the 
truth and the enjoyment of religion. His success pro- 
voked the hostility of leading churchmen. A sheriff, 
a captain of militia, and an engineer, combined to rid 
the country of his zealous labours, and M'Carty was 
destined to be honoured as the protomartyr of Metho- 
dism in Canada. Under a statute against vagabonds, 
he was seized while preaching, on Sunday, at his friend 
Perry's house, by four armed men. The indignant 
congregation opposed them, and as Perry offered to give 
bail for his appearance the next day at the magistrate's 
office in Kingston, the assailants retired. They had 
designed to carry the preacher to the Kingston prison. 
On the next day Perry took him to the sheriff in 
that town, but the officer refused to have anything 
to do with them. The conspirators, however, were at 
hand, and before night had him in prison under some 
frivolous pretext. Perry again bailed him, but on his 
return for trial his enemies were resolved that he should 
never preach again. He was suddenly seized, thrust 
into a boat, and conveyed by four Frenchmen, hired for 
the purpose, down the St. Lawrence, to the rapids near 

N 



194 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



Cornwall. He was landed on one of the numerous 
solitary islands of that part of the stream, and may 
have perished by starvation, or have heen drowned in 
attempting to reach the main shore ; hut his fate has 
never heen disclosed. The sad mystery has consecrated 
his name in the history of the Canadian Church. 
"Undoubtedly," says its historian, "M'Carty was a 
martyr for the Gospel, and so he was regarded by the 
early inhabitants."* 

Mr. Gorrie says : — " The success of Mr. M'Carty and 
the Methodists who co-operated with him, aroused, as 
usual, the ire of some of the Established clergy. A 
minister of the Church of England meeting one of these 
revivalists one day, said to him abruptly, 'You are 
going to hell !' 'How do you know that 1 ?' 'Oh, I 
am sure of it ; for you run out against dancing, card- 
playing, horse-racing, &c, and you'll go to hell for it.' 
He adds that M'Carty's chief persecutors in Kingston 
soon ended their career also, the engineer and sheriff both 
having died in a few weeks afterward, while the militia 
captain subsequently wrote a confession of his crime, 
in which he stated that he had wrongfully persecuted 
an innocent man, and presented it to the judge of the 
court. He afterward became insane, and continued so 
until his death, "t 

William Losee was the first Itinerant who visited 
Canada. He crossed the St. Lawrence in January, 

* History of the M. E Church, II. 395, 396. 
f Gome's Episcopal Methodism, as it Was and Is, p. 121-123. 
(Auburn, 1852.) 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



195 



1790, and ere long formed a Circuit — the first Metho- 
dist Circuit in Canada. He was a young man of burn- 
ing zeal, of true apostolic spirit, very much of the same 
type as Calvin Wooster, and Thomas Walsh. Some 
of his kindred resided at Adolphustown, and here, in 
1792, the first Methodist Chapel in Canada was built. 
" The subscription paper for this edifice is still extant. 
It bears the names of Embury, Beninger, Eoblin, Huff, 
Vandusen, Steele, Button (Ruckle), Ketcheson, and 
others, memorable in the early history of the denomi- 
nation."* Within a few years Methodism was per- 
manently established in Canada; and, in 1802, we 
find the honoured name of Nathan Bangs on the 
minutes for Canada. Here he commenced that career 
of self-sacrificing labour, of heroic enterprise, of apos- 
tolic success, which has secured for him a place second 
to none among the sons of American Methodism. One 
cannot read his biography without feeling "that there 
were giants in the earth in those days," and ceasing to 
wonder at the progress and victories of Methodism in 
Canada. Nearly sixty years after, when his glorious 
career approached its close, and the crown was all 
but dropped upon his honoured brow, he received a 
letter from the scene of his early toils and triumphs, 
written by the venerable William Case — a veteran 
of the same apostolic mould — which, as it sheds so 
beautiful a light upon Irish Methodism in Canada 
in the early times, I shall be excused for tran- 
scribing here : — 

* Stevens's Women of Methodism, p. 196. 



196 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



"Alnwick, March 6, 1855. 
" Eeverend and dear Brother, — What scenes and 
changes have passed since we commenced our ministry ! 
Most of our early associates in the ministry in this 
country have passed triumphantly to the great reward ; 
yet the church is supplied abundantly and ably. The 
membership, too, have increased from scores to hun- 
dreds and thousands. Once we assembled the few in 
private dwellings ; larger assemblies were congregated 
in barns, for churches were ' few and far between.' 
We now preach to thousands ; churches have arisen, 
large and numerous, in our cities, towns, and circuits. 
Brother, after more than half-a-century of toil, you, 
perhaps, are scarcely able to visit the scenes of your 
former labours. Would it not be delightful to do so ? 
Your appearance among the descendants of your early 
Christian friends would fill them with delight : and 
could you not do more for God and the Church by 
travelling at large than by tracing a thousand times 
the streets of a city? Your experience in the things 
of God, your counsel in the interests of the Church, 
would have its influence favourably in the closing 
scene of so lengthened a ministerial course. Could you 
not again visit Canada, the land of your youth, of your 
conversion to God, your early ministry, and of the 
mission-field you have aided to cultivate? The rail- 
road would bring you on to Kingston or to Hamilton 
in a few hours. Once we toiled on horseback through 
wild forests, from two and a-half to four miles an hour ; 
now, forty miles is the speed we move ! Brother, try 
it before leaving for the ' fairer climes.' .... 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



197 



" During the winter just passed, I have enjoyed the 
unspeakable pleasure of visiting the scenes of our early 
labours — yours and mine. I passed through Hallow- 
well, Belleville, Kingston, Elizabethtown, Eockville, 
Augusta, Matilda, and thence to By town (Ottawa 
City), thence to Perth and Walford, on the Eideau ; 
thence home through a portion of the Northern new 
settlements. In the route, I found some, though few, 
of our former religious friends now living. Arthur 
Youmans, Eufus Shorey, Mrs. M'Lean (formerly Widow 
Coate), and William Brown are now living, at the ages 
of from eighty to ninety-one. Youmans (at the latter 
age) was one of the members of the first class formed 
in Hallowell, January, 1793, by Darias Dunham. A 
class paper of the same class was written by Elijah 
Wolsey, in 1795. But the parents of the Johnstons, 
Congers, Van Deusens, Bobbins, Germans, Huffs, 
Emburys, Detlors, Clarkes, Parrots, Maddens, Keders, 
Colemans, Hecks, Coons, Brouses, Aults, Dulmages, 
Laurences, are all gone ; yet they live in their exam- 
ples of piety, integrity, hospitality, and Christian 
benevolence. These virtues are prominent, to a great 
extent, in their numerous descendants. The progeny 
bears a striking impress of their worthy patriarchal 
fathers. 

"You will remember the names of Samuel and Jacob 
Heck, of Augusta, and the Emburys of Bay of Quinte — 
the former the sons of Paul Heck and his worthy com- 
panion, the parents of Methodism in the City of New 
York and in America. The parents are gone, and the 
sons have followed them in the way of holiness to glory; 



198 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



but a numerous train of grand-children are pursuing the 
Christian course ' their fathers trod,' intelligent, pious, 
and wealthy. Blessed are the meek, for they shall in- 
herit the earth. A few years since I visited John 
Embury and his worthy companion. He was then 
ninety-eight years old. The scenes of early Methodism 
in New York were vivid in his recollection, and he re- 
ferred to them as readily as if they had recently occurred. 
He said, ' My uncle, Philip Embury, was a great man — 
a powerful preacher — a very powerful preacher. I had 
heard many ministers before, but nothing reached my 
heart till I heard my uncle Philip preach. I was then 
about sixteen. The Lord has since been my trust and 
portion. I am now ninety-eight. Yes, my uncle 
Philip was a great preacher. After this interview he 
lived about a year, and died suddenly as he rose from 
prayers in his family, at the age of ninety-nine. The 
Emburys, Detlors, Millers, Maddens, Switzers, of Bay 
of Quinte, are numerous and pious, and some of them 
ministers of the gospel, all firmly grounded in Metho- 
dism. Their Palatine origin is prominent in their 
health, integrity, and industry; and their steadfast piety 
by Irish training on Mr. Wesley's knee. Old Mrs. 
Detlor, forty years ago, told me when a child in Ireland, 
Mr. Wesley took me on his knee, when I sang for him 
' ' Children of the heavenly King, 
As we journey let us sing." * 

* Life and Times of Nathan Bangs, D.D., by Abel Stevens, 
LL.D. (New York, Carlton and Porter, 1863, p. 386, 388.) A 
choice book in a thousand. One feels in reading it as if a hun- 
dred men like Nathan Bangs would turn the world upside down. 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



199 



" Paul Heck died at Augusta, in the peace of the gos- 
pel, in 1792, aged sixty-two years. 'He was,' says the 
Rev. John Caekoll, of Canada, 'an upright, honest man, 
whose word was as good as his bond.' Barbara Heck 
survived him about twelve years, and died at the resi- 
dence of her son, Samuel Heck, in front of Augusta, in 
1804, aged seventy years. Her death was befitting her 
life; her old German Bible — the guide of her youth in 
Ireland, her resource during the falling away of her 
people in New York, her inseparable companion in all 
her wanderings in the wildernesses of Northern JSTew 
York and Canada — was her oracle and comfort to the 
last. She was found sitting in her chair dead, with the 
well-used and endeared volume open on her lap; and 
thus passed away this devoted, obscure, and unpreten- 
tious woman, who so faithfully, yet unconsciously, laid 
the foundation of one of the grandest ecclesiastical 
structures of modern ages, and whose name will last 
with ever-increasing brightness 'as long as the sun and 
moon endure.' "* 

The Embury and Heck families, so singularly joined 
together in our religious history, have blended in several 
neighbourhoods, and the descendants of both families 
are now widely scattered in the churches of Upper and 
Lower Canada. Mrs. Embury, Philip's widow, married, 
as we have seen, her countryman, John Laurence, and 
bore him four children. Samuel, Philip's son, married 
Catherine Miller, of St. Armand, Canada East, and had 
twelve children, nearly all of whom lived, and in their 
* Stevens's Women of Methodism, p. 197, 198. 



200 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



turn founded influential Wesleyan families, every way 
worthy of Irish. Methodism, and of the honoured name 
of Embury. Samuel, as we have seen, was the first 
Methodist Class-leader in Canada, many years before 
Losee crossed the St. Lawrence. He died at Armand, 
in 1853, in the full triumph of faith, in the eighty- 
eighth year of his age. 

Catherine Elizabeth Embury, Philip's daughter, 
married Duncan Eisher, Esq., of Montreal. She died in 
1833, leaving a large family of children. "Mrs. Hick, 
wife of the late Eev. John Hick, Wesleyan m in ister, 
Mrs. M'Kenzie, Mrs. John Torrance, and Mrs. Lunn, 
all grand-children of Philip Embury, died happy in God. 
Philip Embury's great-great-grandson, John Torrance, 
jun., Esq., now fills the honourable and responsible 
position of treasurer, and trustee steward of three of our 
large "Wesleyan Churches in Montreal."* 

The following with reference to the family of Paul 
and Barbara Heck, and the final resting-place of them- 
selves and several of their children, will be read with 
great interest. It is from the pen of the Eev. John 
Carroll, of Canada, one of the honoured and devoted 
men whom Irish Methodism has given to Canada in 
modern times. "Paul and Barbara Heck had five chil- 
dren — namely, Elizabeth, born in JSTew York in 1765; 
John, born in the same place, in 1767; Jacob, born 
there, 1769; Samuel, in Camden, X. T., 28th July, 
1771; and Nancy, at the same place, 1772. They are 

* Letter of John Mathewson, Esq., Montreal, in Christian 
Advocate, January 11, 1866. 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



201 



all now dead. Elizabeth and Xancy died in Montreal; 
Samuel and Jacob at Augusta; and John, unmarried, 
in Georgia, XJ. S., as early as 1805. Jacob married a 
Miss Shorts, who with himself, rests in the country 
graveyard of the Old Blue Church, where rest also Paul 
and Barbara Heck. Samuel married a Miss "Wright ; 
the same may be said of their interment. But three of 
Jacob's children survive; six of Samuel's are still living. 
His son Samuel was a probationer in the Wesleyan 
ministry when he was called to his reward ; his precious 
dust also lies in this graveyard. He was eminently 
pious, a clear-headed theologian, and a methodical 
preacher of some promise. It must not be forgotten 
that the elder Samuel was an eminent local minister 
for more than forty years, who, by his consistency, 
earned the meed of universal respect, and from none 
more than his immediate neighbours, to whom he 
preached nearly every second Sabbath during the whole 
of the time indicated. He was slow, solemn, weighty, 
yet genial and very hearable. Jacob was one of the 
best read men we ever had the happiness to converse 
with, and one whose conversation was as lively and 
playful as it was instructive. We never saw a finer old 
man. We imagine we can now see his venerable white 
head, stooping form, and sparkling dark eyes, and also 
hear his ringing, hearty laugh. He showed his amia- 
bility by his fondness for little children, who were 
equally fond of him. The nine surviving grandchildren 
of Paul and Barbara Heck are pious, and many of their 
grandchildren also. For the reason we have assigned, 



202 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



this graveyard will be dear to every heart •with which 
Methodism and the cause of God are regarded as identi- 
cal Canada is highly honoured in having the guardian- 
ship of the sacred dust of persons who were instrumental 
in kindling that fire which has broken forth into such 
a glorious conflagration on this continent. It is, how- 
ever, to the shame of Canadian Methodists, that no 
worthy memorial has been erected ere this to the honour 
of Paul and Barbara Heck."* 

From the same hand we have the following glowing 
notes of the Old Blue Church Graveyard. — " There is 
not a more beautiful part of Canada than that which 
skirts the majestic St. Lawrence, from Brockville to 
Prescott, a distance of twelve miles. The land rises 
gently from the noble river, is in the highest cultiva- 
tion, thoroughly cleared of the primeval forest, orna- 
mented with sightly trees, stone walls, good buildings, 
fine orchards, and in many places the road is adorned 
with beautiful shade trees, — the maple, now and then 
*an elm, the pine, and a considerable profusion of the 
steeple-like Lombardy poplar. About midway between 
the thriving and sightly town of Prescott and the 
picturesque little village of Maitland, is situated what 
is called 1 The Old Blue Church Graveyard.' This is 
ground which was probably set apart for what was 
then believed to be the Established Church of the 
Province, in the early settlement of the country ; but, 

* Toronto Christian Guardian. Edited by the Rev. Welling- 
ton Jeffers, D.D., another distinguished gift from Ireland to 
Canada. 



METHODISM JN CANADA. 



203 



though part of a ' glehe lot,' and claimed by Episco- 
palians, all sections of the community bury there as a 
matter of right. This ground once exhibited a sizeable 
wooden church, the remains of which I have seen. 
The building once wore a coat of blue paint — hence its 
name, ' The Blue Church.' It was demolished several 
years ago, and a diminutive church-like building erected 
near the road, out of the materials, for the convenience 
of reading the burial service at funerals — that is, by 
our Episcopalian friends, who enjoy the exclusive right 
to enter it. The original forest trees which covered 
this spot of yore, were cleared away by the hands of 
some whose remains, palsied by the hand of death, 
now rest amid the roots of the fallen monarchs of the 
woods; but the second growth of pines, which has 
since sprung up, and now nearly canopy it with their 
spreading branches, tower to the height of forty or fifty 
feet. It is a lovely spot. Here lie buried, not 1 the 
rude forefathers' of Augusta's present inhabitants 
merely, but many men of mark among the early 
settlers of the country, particularly many early Metho- 
dist worthies. The spot is specially remarkable as 
containing all that was mortal of several of the most 
distinguished German Irish Methodists, or Palatines, 
who came to New York in 1760 and following years, 
where they constituted the first Methodist Society. 
Here lie the remains of the once beautiful Mary 
Switzer, married at the early age of sixteen to Philip 
Embury, the apostle of Methodism in the city of New 
York; also those of the much respected John Law- 



204 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



rence, a pious young man, who left Ireland in com- 
pany with the Emburys, and who married Mrs. 
Embury. Here also lie Paul and Barbara Heck, who 
were among the more prominent founders of the New 
York Society, and some of their descendants."* 

A more recent number of the same journal supple- 
ments the above by the following interesting particu- 
lars : — " I had the pleasure of feasting my eyes once 
more with the mellow beauties of the Old Blue Church 
Graveyard. It is true the old church has long since 
passed away, and only a tiny chapel, for funeral ser- 
vices, occupies its place. But there lies still the sunny 
sidehill spot, partly shaded with negligently beautiful 
pines. Within it lie not only the rude forefathers of 
the surrounding settlements, but many of the leading 
minds, religious and secular, of their infant Canada. 
Yes, here lie old Dr. Henderson, and many of his 
descendants ; and David Brakenridge, Esq., the magis- 
trate and preacher, who, I remarked his tombstone 
says, died in 1833, at the age of seventy. But here 
lie also Paul and Barbara Heck, the founders of Metho- 
dism in New York, Cambridge, near Lake Champlain, 
and Augusta, Canada. Two of their sons, Jacob and 
Samuel, with their wives and some of their children, 
lie here. Here also lies the Rev. Thomas Madden, one 
of the first Canadians who became an Itinerant, with 
his two angel daughters, Hester and Eliza, by his side. 
But the time would fail to enumerate all who lie 
around them. Many, in that consecrated ground, will 
* Toronto Christian Guardian. 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



205 



shine like the firmament in the morning of the resur- 
rection. 

" From the graveyard I bent my steps to the Heck 
homesteads, for there are two, side by side, facing on 
the majestic St. Lawrence. Jacob's, who was the elder 
of the two brothers, is nearer to the graveyard. He 
had lived in Lower Canada longer than the rest of the 
family, and when he made him a home in the Upper 
Province, he brought with him Franco- Canadian ideas 
of domestic architecture. In fact, I suppose, the original 
type of the house is Norman. It deserves the name of 
' hall ' much better than many barracks in England re- 
joicing in that title. It stands on a knoll, quite near 
the river. It is a large, tall, two-storied stone building, 
with a very steep roof, folding windows, and massive 
walls. The out-buildings are in good repair, but the 
large, aged, and irregular planted Lombardy poplars 
around, have begun to decay, producing a melancholy 
impression. This melancholy is deepened when the 
returning acquaintance of other years enters, and 
misses the benignant eye and intelligent face of the 
gray-haired proprietor ; and, most of all, misses his 
wonderously fascinating conversation. The mother, 
and several of the precious daughters, too, are missed. 
But two of the family linger in that homestead. The 
once beautiful, but still lady-like and noble Catherine, 
survives, who, in early life, sacrificed an affluent and 
respectable settlement, because she foresaw it would be 
adverse to her spiritual interests. Though now aged 
and infirm, her conversation is religiously cheerful, 



206 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



while her countenance bespeaks the most abiding 
happiness. Her religious hopes and sentiments are 
shared by her younger sister, Trances, who is scarcely 
less infirm than she. May time deal gently with these 
ladies, and Jehovah crown their closing years with peace ! 
Things are more modern, vital, and progressive, in 
Samuel's late estate. The house is more modern, and 
the environs more beautiful, but not more interesting. 
The broad acres around are well and scientifically culti- 
vated. George Heck, Esq., the youngest grandson of 
the renowned Paul and Barbara, is the presiding and 
active genius of the place. Besides his lovely wife and 
children, two married sisters, Hester and Mary Ann, 
patterns of well-read and intelligent piety, remain to 
remind one of their parents. This is one of the too 
few Methodist families in which the simple piety of 
their worthy parents has not deteriorated along with 
increasing knowledge and refinement."* 

Here I must bid farewell to the honoured names of 
Embury and Barbara Heck, the founders of Methodism 
in the United States and in Canada. Never before 
were any two obscure families so honoured of God. 
Never again till the last trump, perhaps, will it fall to 
the lot of any two individuals to write their names so 
imp erishably upon the hearts of millions of the children 
of men, as Philip Embury and Barbara Heck, of 
Ballingran ! 

I cannot but think Mrs. Heck's death most beautiful. 
It would make a grand subject for a painting. The 

* Toronto Christian Guardian. 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



207 



Mother of American and Canadian Methodism falling 
asleep in Jesus, "with her German Bible lying open on 
her lap ! When I think of her in life and in death, and 
her consistent Methodist devotedness to God and His 
Church reflected in her children and her children's 
children, I feel proud, as an Irish Methodist, that 
Barbara Heck belongs to Ireland by birth, and to Irish 
Methodism as part of that noble fruit with which God 
has honoured its hallowed and self-denying toil; and my 
heart says, "many daughters have done virtuously, but 
thou excellest them all!" 

I am inclined to think that Canadian Methodism is 
even more deeply indebted to Ireland in proportion to 
its numbers, than the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
the States. Again and again, since I commenced to 
study the relationship existing between Irish and 
American Methodism, have I been amazed at the con- 
stitutional stamina and vitality of Irish Methodism, that 
it lives, aye, and nourishes, after giving hundreds of its 
choicest spirits to the ranks of the ministry, and tens of 
thousands of its people to our churches in the United 
States and Canada. From documents now before me, 
I should not be surprised if more than one fourth of all 
the Methodists in Canada are directly or more remotely 
connected with Irish Methodism. Perhaps this estimate 
is far too low. The friendly reader who has accom- 
panied me so far can form some faint conception of the 
loss involved in the emigration of such families as those 
of Embury and Paul Heck. But though these are con- 
fessedly special cases, there have been thousands, of 



208 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OP 



which, the following (taken almost at random from a 
drawer full of similar cuttings), is a fair specimen. It 
is from the Toronto Christian Guardian, and was 
written by the Eev. William Henry Poole, who is 
himself another of the noble band Ireland has given to 
the Canadian ministry. " In that revival (at Ballingran), 
Garrett Miller, known and distinguished as Grand- 
father Miller, with many others, was made to rejoice in 
the knowledge of sins forgiven, and with an Embury, a 
Heck, a Switzer, and others, he, too, sought a home in 
America. He pitched his tent at Cambridge, York 
State, saying, "Eor now the Lord hath made room for 
us." 

"In the Eevolutionary War he was wounded and made 
prisoner in the English service, carrying from the well- 
fought field the marks and scars to his grave. When 
the storm-cloud was passed, and the war was over, he 
removed to Sorrell, Canada East, but not enjoying the 
religious atmosphere of the place, he moved with his 
family to Ernestown, where he died in 1823. The eye 
of the venerable man, who was at once a soldier and a 
Christian, used to brighten, and his tongue become 
eloquent, as he told of Mr. Wesley's frequent visits to 
his father's house and neighbourhood. He often heard 
Mr. Wesley preach. The three worthies who have 
lately left us, were wont to tell their children and grand- 
children, our people were Palatines from Ireland, con- 
verted to God through the instrumentality of Mr. 
Wesley. 

"William Miller, the eldest son, was born Nov. 25, 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



205 



1783. When twenty -four years of age, lie took to his 
home and heart Miss Hannah M'Kim, who made a 
good wife, a good mother, and a good Christian. She 
left him with nine children, three of whom soon 
followed her to the better country. The others, I trust, 
are contending for the same home, all active and useful 
members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. . . . 
For full thirty years his house was open for public 
worship, where the Wesleyan ministers and their many 

visitors found a hearty welcome Had he 

lived a few days longer he would have seen his eightieth 
birth-day. He died on the 20th of October, 1863. He 
was followed to the Old Switzer's Church by a large 
retinue of sorrowing children and grand-children, where, 
after a short address, his body was committed to the 
tomb, to wait till Christ shall bid it rise. 

"His brother, Garrett Miller, was born Nov. 19, 
1786. He came to Ernestown when about twelve years 
of age. The next year he gave himself to God and to 
the Church, joined Mr. Detlor's* class, and remained 
unshaken in his confidence until his last hour. His 
stability in relation to the church of his early choice 
may be accounted for, in part at least, from the fact 
that he was an early and constant reader of our Church 
organ, as a welcome weekly visitor; close and continued 
attention to its columns put him in possession of that 
information which saved himself and others in the years 
of storm and trial. Others were borne off in the tide 

* Also from Ireland, the husband of Mrs. Detlor, mentioned 
above. 

o 



206 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



of division, when lie remained unmoved, a pillar in the 
Church of God. 

"In Church matters, as in his personal experience, he 
often said, 'My heart is fixed.' He was more knowing 
and better read in Church matters than many of his 
day ; and to his credit it may also be said he was more 
liberal to the cause of God. The house of the Lord was 
his chief joy; often, when scarcely able to sit up in his 
chair, he found his way to the house of prayer. His 
wife's maiden name was Nancy Foster ; with her he 
lived long and happily, leaving behind him six married 
children, and a number of grand-children. One of his 
sons is a highly respected and useful Wesleyan Metho- 
dist minister. After a long illness of patient suffering, 
he died in great peace, on Monday, the 28th of Decem- 
ber, 1863. Of him we may say, that 

' From early boyhood to his seventy-eighth, 
Pursued the way to endless rest ; 
And ripening to his exit, 
Left in peace. ' 

" Their brother, John Miller, was born Dec. 19,17 90, 
and he, too, in early life, found the pearl of great price. 
As his son, the Eev. A. Miller, Wesleyan minister, in- 
tends to furnish a memoir of his useful life and happy 
death, I did not get the particulars. I can, however, 
bear testimony to the triumphs of grace in his last hours ; 
that confidence in his Saviour that sustained him in a 
long life of fidelity in his master's cause, secured for 
him a triumphal exit from his work to his reward. He 
was an uncompromising opponent to everything that 
seemed to be an infringement on old Methodism. . 



METHODISM IN CANADA. 



207 



His class and his church loved him much. All found 
in him a good counsellor, a warm friend, and a consis- 
tent member of the Church. It was a great pleasure to 
him to entertain the ministers of the gospel : as his 
fathers did in this particular, so did he, and indeed his 
brothers also. He calmly fell asleep on the 15th of 
January, 1864, leaving a large family following him on 
the same path to heaven." * 

Irish Methodism has probably lost from fifty to 
seventy thousand members within the last century, of 
whom old Garrett Miller and his worthy family are 
not unfair specimens. If we add the children (who 
would in all probability have joined the church of their 
fathers), the loss to the Irish Methodist Church, by emi- 
gration during the past century, cannot be much less 
than from an hundred and fifty to two hundred thou- 
sand members ! And yet some wise folk in England 
and elsewhere amuse the public with homilies on the 
failure of Irish Methodism ! t 

Canada, in point of extent of territory, is about equal to 
the United States, and as it possesses every element of 
national wealth and greatness, it is destined to a glorious 
future. The population is at present rising more rapidly 
than perhaps any other part of the world. And Metho- 
dism is rising with it, and, I believe, destined to keep 
pace with it as in the States. At the recent Montreal 
Conference it was stated that while in 1825 the 
number of ministers was but 39, in 1865 it was 526. 

* Toronto Christian Guardian. 

f See some of the English correspondents of the Provincial 
Wesleyan, and other American journals. 



208 IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OP METHODISM, &C. 

In the former year, Samuel Embury's little class at 
Augusta reported 7,000 members throughout the Pro- 
vinces, and in 1865, 56,768! with perhaps five times 
that number, including children, under Methodist in- 
fluence and teaching. And even these figures, startling 
though they be, by no means adequately represent the 
actual growth of the seed planted at Augusta by Samuel 
Embury and Barbara Heck. The above figures represent 
merely the branch of Canadian Methodism which is in 
connexion with the British Conference. Over and 
above this, the Canadian Wesle} r an Methodist New 
Connexion Church reports, 90 Ministers, 147 Local 
Preachers, and nearly 9,000 Church Members. And 
another branch of Canadian Methodism, "The Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church in Canada," reports, 3 Annual- 
Conferences, 2 Bishops, 216 Itinerant Ministers, and 
224 Local Preachers, and 20,000 Church Members, and 
perhaps three or four times that number directly under 
its influence. These are all fully equipped with primary 
and superior schools, male and female Colleges, a Wes- 
leyan University, equal, if not superior to, anything in 
Canada, and weekly religious newspapers, scattered 
in thousands throughout the Provinces, and edited by 
first-class men as in the States. Looking at the whole, 
in this memorable Centenary year, we may well say, 
"What hath God wrought !" The seed sown in Samuel 
Embury's class at Augusta, has expanded under the 
fostering hand of God, into the largest and most in- 
fluential church in Canada, having more or less under 
its influence, one fourth op the entire population! 



p. 

of iiWjmfcrtsm m €mkxn 



Irishmen have warred a good warfare, and died triumphantly in almost 
every important Methodist field of the world. They founded the denomi- 
nation, or helped to found it, as we have seen, in the United states of 
America, in the British North American Provinces, in the West Indies, in 
Australia, in Africa, and in India; and they sleep in Missionary graves 
awaiting the resurrection trumpet, in nearly all parts of the globe to which 
Methodism has borne the cross." — Dr. Stevens's History of Methodism, iii. 
439. 



CHAPTEE XI. 



unb % 
%IMXUK. 

EXTENT OF EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA— METHODISM THERE, AS 
IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, THE CHILD OF IRISH 
METHODISM — LAURENCE COUGHLAN — HIS CHARACTER — LET- 
TERS TO WESLEY — COMMENCED HIS LABOURS IN 1765— LETTER 
FROM NEWFOUNDLAND TO WESLEY — HIS LABOURS, PERSECU- 
TION, AND TRIUMPHS — MORAL STATE OF NEWFOUNDLAND — 
CONVERSION OF ARTHUR THOMEY — JOHN STRETTON, OF 
WATERFORD — HIS CONVERSION AND EMIGRATION TO NEW- 
FOUNDLAND — MRS. BENNIS, OF LIMERICK — FIRST METHODIST 
CHAPEL IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA, BUILT AND OPENED 
BY STRETTON, AT HARBOUR GRACE — HIS CHARACTER AND 
LABOURS— RETURN OF COUGHLAN TO ENGLAND, AND HIS 
SUDDEN DEATH — ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN THE CHANNEL 
ISLANDS, AND IN FRANCE — LABOURS OF STRETTON AND 
THOMEY — ARRIVAL OF HOSKINS — STRETTON APPLIES TO 
WESLEY FOR A PREACHER— WESLEY'S LETTER TO HIM — 
APPOINTMENT OF JOHN M 'GEARY, IN 1785 — PROGRESS OF THE 
CAUSE — REV. JOHN REMMINGTON — SAMUEL ELLIS AND 
SAMUEL M 'DO WELL — REV. GEORGB CUBITT AND CAPTAIN 
VICKERS — PRESENT STATE OF METHODISM IN EASTERN 
BRITISH AMERICA. 

AS many in Ireland have no definite idea of what is 
meant by "Eastern British America" as distin- 
guished from Canada, we may pause for a moment and 



212 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OP 



endeavour to give them some conception of the vast 
and important territory denominated " Eastern British 
America." It includes Newfoundland, with its un- 
rivalled fisheries, extending along 1,200 miles of coast, 
making it an El Dorado of wealth. This island alone 
is equal in extent to the united kingdoms of Denmark 
and Hanover. Nova Scotia, our oldest possession on 
the American continent, which, with Cape Breton, is 
in extent equal to Switzerland. New Brunswick, 
" grand in its forests, and fertile in its lands, with 
a growing population of hardy settlers, the germ of a 
future full of promise,"* and embracing a territory equal 
to both Holland and Belgium : and Prince Edward's 
Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, " as large as that 
famous Italian State, the Grand Duchy of Parma; 
which, since the downfall of her meteor lord, has 
formed the dominion of Maria Louisa, "t 

And if there are few who have any adequate concep- 
tion of the extent and importance of Eastern British 
America, the number is still less who know that the 
Methodist Church in this territory, as in the United 
States aud in Canada, is the offspring of Irish Metho- 
dism. With the claims upon my space, and the ex- 
tent to which this book has already grown beyond 
what I intended, I cannot do more than glance at the 
circumstances under which Methodism was introduced 

* See a noble speech by the Eev. George Douglas, Wesle3 T an 
minister, of Canada, in Montreal Herald, Nov. 9, 1864. 

f Arthur's Extent and Moral Statistics of the British Empire, 
p. 13. 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 213 

into Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and record a few 
of the honoured Irish names which grace its early 
Methodist history. 

Laurence Coughlan was the first who unfurled the 
Methodistic banner in Newfoundland, in 1765 — that is, 
a year before Embury commenced preaching in New 
York; and hence, Methodism in Eastern British America 
is somewhat older than in either the United States or 
Canada. Coughlan was converted in Ireland- at a 
very early period, probably about the year 1753, and 
was received on trial as a Methodist preacher in 1755. 
He travelled for several years in Ireland and England, 
though we cannot trace his career from year to year, 
as the stations were not published regularly at this 
early period. The following letters were written to 
Wesley prior to his removal to Newfoundland, and 
will serve to show the spirit of this apostle of Metho- 
dism in Eastern British America : — ■ 

11 Jan. 26, 1762. 
" Eev. Sir, — I bless God I do hold fast whereunto 
I have attained. Christ is all in all to my soul. In 
all his works my God I see — the object of my love. 
Two or three years ago you wrote the following words, 
with a diamond pencil, on a window in Whitehaven : 
' God is here.' These words have often since been 
made a great blessing to my soul. I am often so filled 
with gratitude that I can let silence speak his praise. 
Sometimes it is drawn out in sweet, holy mourning, 
for those who are as sheep without a shepherd. At 
other times God shows me what a poor, helpless 



214 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



creature I am. And the sense of this always abides 
in me, so that I am often amazed at my own ignor- 
ance ; and whatever good I feel or do, I can truly say, 
it is the Lord. I now hear a voice, ' in a few years thou 
wilt turn out worse than ever.' But, blessed by God, 
I hear and follow his voice; therefore, I take no 
thought for the morrow. This day is put into my 
hands, and I have only to make the best of it. I have 
need to watch against my own will. But is there not 
what we may call an innocent will? For instance, I 
will to be in London, from this motive only, that I 
may hear more of the praises of God. So I choose or 
refuse this or that kind of food, that I may be more fit 
to serve God. But I am not uneasy about it. If I 
were, I apprehend it would be a sinful will. No, I 
am entirely resigned, knowing God will cause all 
things to work together for good. — I am, Eev. Sir, 
yours, " Laurence Coughlan." 

"April, 12, 1762. 
"Eev. Sir, — I stayed two nights at Chester after you, 
and indeed it was a time of love. In the meetiDgs of 
the bands several of our friends spoke. Old Mr. 
Prichard was the first: he said, 'For some time I have 
been longing for a clean heart, yet I thought God would 
not give it to so vile a sinner, and the first night Mr. 
W. preached, I felt something across my heart like an 
iron bar, cold and hard. But, hearing Mr. W. insist on 
the word now, I said, " Lord, here I am, a poor sinner. 
I believe thou canst save me now, and give me a clean 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 215 

heart." In that moment, Jesus said to my soul, " I 
will, be thou clean." Immediately that bar was broken, 
and all my soul was filled with love, nor could I doubt 
but Jesus had made me clean through the word which 
he had spoken to my soul.' And three more were 
enabled, before we parted, to declare the same. 

" I find Christ to be exceeding precious to my soul, 
and it is my one desire to do his will. My soul is like 
a watered garden ; my life is hid with Christ in God, 
and I believe, when Christ, who is my life, shall appear, 
I shall appear with him in glory. — I am, Eev. Sir, 
yours truly, "Laurence Coughlan." 

He was not sent to Newfoundland by Wesley, but 
with his concurrence, and that of the Countess of 
Huntingdon, he was ordained by the Bishop of London, 
and sent out to Newfoundland in connexion with "the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts."* Coke and Moore, in their "Life of Wesley;" 
Myles, in his "Chronological History;" and Mr. Atmore, 
in his "Methodist Memorial," all say that he was or- 
dained in 1768, but the following letter proves con- 
clusively that 1765, as given above, is the true date. 
This letter was written a few months prior to his return 
home. 

"Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, 
Nov. 4, 1772. 

" Eev. Sir, — I bless God, my poor labours in this 
land have been attended with some little success ; some 

* Myles calls it "The Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
ledge." 



216 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OP 



precious souls art gone to glory, and a few more are 
walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of 
the Holy Ghost. 

" I am now in the seventh year of my servitude as a 
Missionary ■* at the end of which I hope to return to 
England. Could I travel up and down in this land, so 
as to be useful any longer, I would gladly stay, but as 
I cannot, except by water, in small boats, I am not able 
to stand it. 

"I am, and do confess myself, a Methodist. The 
name I love, and hope I ever shall. The plan which 
you first taught me I have followed, as to doctrine and 
discipline. Our married men meet apart once a week, 
and the married women do the same. This has given 
great offence, so that repeated complaints have been 
made to the Governor. But truth is mighty, and will 
prevail. 

" In winter I go from house to house, and expound 
some part of God's word. This has also given great 
offence; but God is above men, devils, and sin. The 
Society,t I make no doubt, have many complaints 
against me, but in this I shall commit all to God, for 
I am conscious to myself, that what I do is for the 
glory of God, and the good of souls. We have the 
Sacrament once a month, and have about two hundred 
communicants. This is more than all the other mission- 
aries in the land have; nor do I know of any who 

* The Italics are mine. 

+ The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts. Established 1701. 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 217 

attend our sacrament who have not the fear of God, and 
some are happy in his love. There are some also, whose 
mouths God has opened to give a word of exhortation. 
I hope he will raise up more. 

"About this time twelvemonths T hope to be on my 
passage for England. If I come by the way of Ireland, 
I should like to see my old friends there. I shall be 
glad to know if it will be agreeable to you for me to 
speak in your societies. I beg leave to ask you one 
thing more. Having served the Society seven years, as 
their missionary, upon my return to England with a 
strong testimonial from my parish, is the Society obliged 
to give me a living'? and if I could get a place in the 
Church (of England), would you advise me to accept 
it"? If I know my own heart, I would be where I could 
be most useful. To be shut up in a little parish church, 
and to conform in every little thing, for sixty or a hun- 
dred pounds a year, I would not : no, nor even for a 
thousand. My talents, you very well know, Sir, are 
but small, so that to be shut up here any longer will 
not do. I am sure it is high time that I should be 
removed. Who God will provide for this people I 
know not. But he opens and none can shut. I have 
informed good Lady Huntingdon of my coming next 
year. Her plan is somewhat agreeable to me ; that is, 
in going from one place to another. Yet there is one 
thing wanting — viz. discipline, which I look upon, 
under God, has been the preserving of my Society. My 
preaching in this land would do but little good, were it 
not for our little meetings. A line from you next 



218 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



spring will be very acceptable to your dutiful son in the 
Gospel, 

"L. Coughlan." 

"To the Rev. John Wesley." 

This letter satisfactorily proves two points — first, that 
Coughlan was substantially a Methodist preacher, 
though not actually sent out by John Wesley ; and 
secondly, that he commenced his labours in Newfound- 
land in 1765. " Newfoundland was then truly mission- 
ary ground. The country was not colonized; the forests 
were in their primitive simplicity ; there were no roads, 
but few horses, and no vehicles of any kind ; no bridges, 
and the weary traveller, with his knapsack at his back, 
would climb the rocks, and wade every stream in his 
way. The children were without education; the people 
without religious instruction; and the land without 
Bibles."* Into this discouraging and most laborious 
field, our heroic evangelist entered, and speedily encoun- 
tered the most formidable opposition, principally from 
the Church of England Clergy, who denounced him as 
a Methodist, because of the doctrine of salvation by 
faith which he preached, and of the class meetings which 
he established. He was prosecuted in the chief court 
of the Island, but escaped the fury of his enemies. In 
a letter to the society which employed him, he was 
accused of almost every conceivable crime, and still he 
bravely held on his way. At last, in order to shut the 
mouth of this brave Methodist preacher, some of his 

* Rev. W. Wilson, in Provincial Wesleyan. 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 219 

enemies hired a physician to poison him. But the 
physician was converted under the sturdy evangelist's 
ministry, and discovered the diabolical plot ! And now 
God gave testimony to the Word of his grace ministered 
by his faithful servant. The Spirit was poured from on 
high, and many were converted both at Harbour Grace 
and Carbonear, who were duly formed into classes. 
The flame of persecution now ran higher than ever, and 
he was summoned before the Governor, as a public dis- 
turber. But again the indomitable preacher was* des- 
tined to triumph, for the Governor, greatly to his credit, 
not only declared in his favour, but made him a Justice 
of the Peace ! * Persecution now ceased, and for about 
four years he continued to labour on the Island, and 
ultimately succeeded in enrolling about two hundred 
persons, as appears from the foregoing letter to Wesley. 

During Coughlan's stay in Newfoundland, Wesley 
now and then wrote to him, by way of cheering him 
amid the fearful discouragements identified with his 
borean field of labour. Under date Aug. 29, 1768, 
Wesley says : — " Dear Laurence, — By a various train 
of providences you have been led to the very place 
where God intended you should be ; and you have 
reason to praise him that he has not suffered' your 
labours there to be in vain. In a short time, how 
little will it signify whether we had lived in the 
Summer Islands, or beneath 

' The rage of Arctos, and eternal frost.' 

* I am sorry that I cannot find out the name of this worthy 
Governor. It would be well worth printing. 



220 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



"How soon will this dream of life be at an end? 
And when we are once landed in eternity, it will be 
all one whether we spent our time on earth in a 
palace, or had not where to lay our head."* 

Eev. William Wilson, of the Eastern British American 
Conference, in a private letter, now before me, says : — 
"Mr. Coughlan laboured seven years in Harbour Grace 
and Carbonear, amidst great opposition and perse- 
cution, but with great zeal, faithfulness, and success. 

" In the second year of my missionary life (1821), 
it was my privilege to be acquainted with some few, 
then aged persons, who had been brought to God 
through his labours, and who had, for more than half 
a century, lived in the favour of God, and had uni- 
formly adorned their religious profession. 

"When Mr. Coughlan came to Newfoundland, the 
people were in a fearful state. There were no schools 
for the children, no churches, no Protestant institu- 
tions of any kind, and there was no Sabbath. The 
settlers were almost lawless ; and although originally 
from different parts of the United Kingdom, were now 
fast sinking into heathenism, or being engulphed in 
the soul-deceiving and God-dishonouring dogmas of 
Popery. In point of morals, they were sunk so 
low, and their wickedness had become so enormous, 
as to have been scarcely exceeded by the guilty inhabi- 
tants of Sodom. In the midst of this people did this 
devoted servant of Christ open his mission, and with 
great plainness and energy did he preach a free, a 
* Wesley's Journal, iii. 324. 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA.. 221 

present, and a full salvation, and constantly did lie 
insist upon the great Scripture truth, 'Ye must be 
born again.' The house was soon filled to overflow- 
ing ; some were astonished ; others ridiculed the 
preacher; some were annoyed with his plainness of 
speech ; and some persecuted him. But several 
were brought under the influence of Divine truth, 
cast themselves upon the mercy of God, and found 
pardon through the precious blood of Christ." 

Amongst the first-fruits of Coughlan's ministry was 
Mr. Arthur Thomey, an intelligent Irish merchant, 
who was engaged in the fishing business at Harbour 
Grace. He speedily became a most acceptable and 
devoted local preacher, who, amidst great hardships 
and privations, itinerated along the north shore of 
Conception Bay, preaching salvation by faith amongst 
the inhabitants of the numerous coves that indent that 
noble estuary. 

In the year 1770, Coughlan's hands were strength- 
ened by the arrival of another devoted Irishman, whose 
name can never perish in Methodism in Eastern British 
America — Mr. John Stretton, of Waterford, son to 
Mr. John Stretton, of Limerick, a prominent friend of 
Methodism in the early day. I have already men- 
tioned more than once the honoured name of Mrs. 
Bennis, as the first person who joined our church in 
Limerick, and the friend and correspondent of Wesley.* 
Young Stretton removed to Waterford, where he car- 
ried on an important branch of his business in the 
* See pp. 42, 45. 

P 



222 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OP 



Newfoundland trade. He was favourable to Methodism, 
but not decided for God. He resolved to remove to 
Newfoundland, with the view of improving his business ; 
and shortly before his removal, the devoted Mrs. Bennis 
visited him in Waterford, and was the instrument of 
his conversion. On his removal to Newfoundland, with 
true Irish ardour, he joined Coughlan and Thomey, and 
speedily became a prominent and successful local 
preacher. He built the first Methodist Chapel in 
Eastern British America, at Harbour Grace, out of his 
own funds, and after Coughlan's return home, in the 
absence of any regular minister, dedicated it himself! 
Mrs. Bennis carried on a regular correspondence with 
him for years, and these glowing letters, full of life and 
fire, had much to do with making Stretton the man he 
was in Newfoundland.* Mr. Wilson says (in the letter 
quoted above), " He was a man of talent, of sterling 
piety, and a very acceptable preacher. He, with Mr. 
Thomey, settled as a merchant in Harbour Grace, and 
by these two important auxiliaries, Methodism soon 
acquired a character and a stability which it retains to 
the present day. While Mr. Coughlan mostly confined 

* This devoted Christian lady — one of the brightest ornaments 
of Methodism in Limerick, for nearly half a century — emigrated 
to America in the decline of life, and died in Philadelphia, in 
1802. Her letters — a rich legacy of truth to the Church — were 
published by her son, Thomas Bennis, in Philadelphia, in 1809, 
under the title " Christian Correspondence : being a Collection 
of Letters written by,the late Rev. John Wesley, the late Mrs. 
Eliza Bennis, and others." It is a rare book in more senses than 
one. 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 223 

his labours to Harbour Grace and Carbonear, these ex- 
cellent local brethren itinerated up and down the North 
shore, and even went as far as St. John's to preach the 
gospel of the Lord Jesus." 

Coughlan returned to England in 1773, leaving the 
work in the hands of Thomey and Stretton. He asked 
Wesley to give him a Circuit; but before his appoint- 
ment, while he was engaged in conversation with 
Wesley in his study, he was seized with a paralytic 
stroke, and, like Boardman, was suddenly taken to the 
paradise of God. 

A most interesting result of Coughlan's mission to 
Newfoundland was the introduction of Methodism into 
the Norman Isles (now called the Channel Isles) and 
into France. Peter Le Sueur, a young man from Jersey, 
engaged in the Newfoundland trade, heard Coughlan at 
Harbour Grace, and was deeply convinced of sin. He 
returned to Jersey, and told his family and friends what 
he had heard from this strange man in Newfoundland, 
and what he had felt under his ministry. They thought 
him mad, but his impressions deepened, and he longed 
for some one to guide him to the Saviour. After a 
time, John Fenton, one of Coughlan's converts, came 
from Newfoundland to Jersey, and pointed Le Sueur to 
Christ. In a short time Le Sueur and his wife (who 
had been violently opposed to the new religion) became 
converted, and twelve of their neighbours joined in 
their humble meetings. Le Sueur and Fenton became 
local preachers. The sacred flame spread, and in 1 786 we 
find Robert Carr Brackenburt and Adam Clarke as 



224 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



missionaries to the Norman Isles. Bracken bury invaded 
Guernsey, where he was instrumental in the conversion 
of the late Eev. John De Quetteville, who, in 1790, 
carried the Methodist banner into Popish France ! * 

"Faithfully," says Mr. Wilson, "did Messrs. Stretton 
and Thomey discharge the duty which now devolved 
upon them. But they were men in business, and the 
lack of a pastor who should be wholly devoted to the 
work, was soon severely felt. Besides, they were not 
in ' Holy Orders the magistrates, therefore, took a 
stand against them, and used every effort with the 
people to prevent them from hearing laymen preach. 
Among other means employed to accomplish their pur- 
pose, these wicked men determined to read prayers 
themselves, in the Church, on Sabbath, expecting 
thereby to keep the people from going to the hated 
Methodist meeting. Of this matter Mr. Stretton gives 
the following account in a letter to a friend, dated 
November, 1775. 'After Mr. Coughlan's sailing for 
Europe, the justices (his avowed enemies) took upon 
themselves to read prayers in the Church, and laboured 
with all their might to introduce the dullest formality 
in room of the pure gospel which he had preached. 
They partly succeeded, for many who had received the 
truth under him had been wont to meet as a class on 
Sabbath evenings, but now their worships would not 
suffer it. 

* We have now in the Channel Islands 18 Ministers, and 2595 
Members, and a separate Conference in France, which is quietly 
doing a great work in that interesting land. 



METHODISM IX EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 225 

"'Mr. Arthur Thomey (a respectable merchant who 
was converted under Mr. Coughlan), and I, being dis- 
gusted with this mode of action on the part of the 
justices, resolved to oppose the torrent of iniquity. We 
gathered a few together who loved the Lord Jesus, and 
we found among them a poor fisherman who was not 
ashamed of his heavenly master, but boldly stood up 
and spoke in his name. Mr. Thomey also exhorts, and 
is endowed with both gifts and grace. This is done 
from house to house. We drew up rules as like Mr. 
Wesley's as we could consistently with local circum- 
stances. Our number is about thirty, who I believe 
are sincere in heart.'"* 

In the spring of 1774, Mr. John Hoskins arrived 
from England and settled at Old Pelican, on the South 
shore of Trinity Bay. He had been a valued and 
devoted local preacher in England, and proved a most 
important auxiliary to the little Church at Newfound- 
land. He introduced Methodism into Old Pelican, and 
his success in preaching the gospel soon called forth, 
opposition from the friends of sin and satan, similar to 
that encountered by Coughlan, Stretton, and Thomey, 
at Harbour Grace. Among other opprobrious epithets, 
" the term ' swaddler,' then lately imported from Ire- 
land, t was applied to the Methodists with great eclat.^ 
Meantime, the word of the Lord grew and prevailed in 
spite of the most formidable opposition; and in 1779 a 
great revival of religion took place in Old Pelican and 

* Methodist Magazine. 1851, p. 870. + See page 41. 
X Rev. "W. Wilson, MS. letter. 



226 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



the neighbourhood, in which John Hoskins, jun., was 
converted, with many others, which greatly strengthened 
the infant Church. For thirteen years did these noble 
and devoted laymen watch over the societies which 
Coughlan had planted and watered, preaching and 
meeting classes from Sabbath to Sabbath throughout 
the country. They now resolved to write to Wesley 
for a minister, and in the year 1784 Stretton sent a 
stirring letter, which drew forth the following response 
from Wesley : — 

"London, February 25, 1785. 
"You did well in breaking through that needless 
diffidence ; if you had written sooner you would have 
heard from me sooner. Although I have not been in 
Limerick for some years, yet I remember your father 
and mother well. They truly feared God when I con- 
versed with them. Be a follower of them, as they of 
Christ. 

" If that deadly enemy of true religion — Popery — is 
breaking in upon you, there is no time to be lost, for it 
is far easier to prevent the plague, than to stop it. Last 
autumn Dr. Coke sailed from England, and is now 
visiting the flock in the Midland Provinces of America, 
and settling them on the New Testament plan, to which 
they all willingly and joyfully conform, being all united 
as by one spirit, so in one body. I trust they will no 
more want such pastors as are after God's own heart. 
After he has gone through these parts, he intends (if 
God permit) to "see the brethren in Nova Scotia, pro- 
bably attended with one or two able preachers, who will 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 227 

be willing to abide there. A day or two ago I wrote 
and desired him, before he returned to England, to call 
upon our brethren also in Newfoundland, and perhaps 
leave a preacher there likewise. About food and 
raiment we take no thought. Our heavenly Father 
knoweth that we need these things, and he will provide. 
Only let us be diligent and faithful in feeding his flock. 
Your preacher will be ordained. Go on in the name of 
the Lord, and in the power of His might! You shall 
want no assistance that is in the power of your affection- 
ate friend and brother, 

" John Wesley. 

"To Mr. John Stretton, Harbour Grace, Newfoundland." 

Circumstances prevented Dr. Coke from visiting either 
Nova Scotia or Newfoundland ; but Wesley, faithful to 
his promise, at the ensuing Conference (1785) ap- 
pointed J ohn M'Geary a missionary to Newfoundland. 
M'Geary was an Irishman, and thus Ireland gave the 
first Lay-preacher and the first Itinerant to both the 
United States and Eastern British America. His arrival 
is thus announced in a letter from Stretton to a 
friend: — "In October, 1785, a preacher arrived here 
from London, sent by Mr. Wesley. His name is John 
M'Geary, a good man and a good preacher. I hope he 
will prove a blessing to this place (Harbour Grace.) 
We wanted one wholly given to the work. A preacher 
should not be entangled with the affairs of this life. 
It has not been the desire of getting rich that has kept 
me here ; but I have been waiting to see the motion of 
the incumbent cloud, and dare not desert my post until 



228 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



lawfully discharged. Single and alone, the Lord has 
enabled me to withstand the whole place where I dwell, 
and I am still preserved by the power of God. Who- 
ever seeks ease or comfort is not likely to meet much 
of either in this island. Blessed be God who has so 
wonderfully kept and supported me for many years in 
this dreary region ! When I have been weak, then was 
I strong."* M'Geary laboured with great fidelity, and 
in 1787, two years after his arrival in Newfoundland, 
100 members are returned for that mission. He had 
the entire Island for his Circuit, till 1791, when we 
find him appointed for Carbonear, and the number of 
members 150. During the summer of 1791 he was 
cheered by the arrival of the Eev. William Black, the 
apostle of Methodism in Nova Scotia, whose visit to 
Carbonear and Harbour Grace was made a distinguished 
blessing. " I have been weeping before the Lord," said 
M'Geary, "over my lonely situation and the darkness 
of the people, and your coming is like life from the 
dead."t M'Geary returned to England in 1792, and 
retired from the Connexion in 1793. 

Passing by several honoured names from England 
and the United States, Ireland gave to Newfoundland 
another noble missionary in 1804, John Eemnington, 
who laboured with great success for six years. The 
great majority of the men composing the present 

* Wesleyan Magazine, 1851, p. 872. 

t See Memoir of the Rev. William Black, hj Matthew Kichey, 
D.D., one of the prominent men Irish Methodism has given to 
Eastern British America. 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 229 

Irish. Conference, know no tiling of Mr. Eemnington 
beyond his name, but his memory and character are 
very dear to the fathers of the Conference, with some of 
whom he travelled after his return. Eev. William 
Wilson, of Eastern British America, thus speaks of 
him : — "Mr. Eemnington was a man of unquestionable 
piety, of great simplicity of manners, and enjoyed un- 
interrupted communion with God. He was a lover of 
music, and a good singer. He taught our people a num- 
ber of old English tunes, and would enliven the prayer- 
meetings with some revival melody. In a manner truly 
enchanting he would sing that now almost obsolete 
hymn — 

* Come saints and sinners liear me tell, 
The wonders of Immanuel ; 
Who saved me from a burning hell, 
And brought my soul with him to dwell, 
And gave me heavenly union. ' 

"He extended our missions to the Harbour of Trinity, 
where, for many years, his name was a household word, 
and in the hearts of all who knew him his memory was 
imperishable. jSTo man ever left the shores of New- 
foundland more deeply regretted than was John Eem- 
nington. He sailed from Trinity at midnight, and that 
evening was a sorrowful vigil with his friends. Just as 
he was about to leave the house, amidst the tears and 
sobs of many, he sung — 

1 Now here's my heart, and here's my hand, 
To meet you in that heavenly land, 
Where we shall part no more. ' 



230 



IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OF 



"A little "before his death, he said to his family, ' 
be a family of prayer! Come, come, I want you all in 
heaven.' His sorrowing wife replied, 'You will soon 
have the victory.' She inquired, 'Is the Saviour 
precious?' 'Yes,' said he, 'very, very precious.' His 
last words were, ' Farewell, all is well.' He died, Nov. 
11, 1838, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and the 
fortieth of his ministry."* 

Irish Methodism subsequently gave to Newfound- 
land Samuel Ellis and Samuel M'Dowell, "both," 
says Mr. Wilson, "noble and faithful men." Mr. 
M'Dowell lived, in green and beautiful old age, till 
August, 1855, and closed his useful and honourable 
career in Belfast, greatly esteemed and beloved by his 
brethren in the ministry. 

It forms no part of my plan to trace the history of 
Methodism in Eastern British America, I aim merely at 
showing the agency of Irish Methodism in laying its 
foundations. Still there is one name which is connected, 

* Rev. W. Wilson, in Provincial Wesley an. — I never saw 
Mr. Remnington, but the mention of his honoured partner in 
life brings up vividly before my mind the image of one of the 
most holy, useful /and devoted Christian ladies whom it has been 
my privilege to know during my public life. When stationed 
on the Coleraine Circuit, a few years since, with the Rev. George 
Vance, one of our most valued leaders was Mrs. Remnington, 
and no one who was privileged to hear her speak at the Love- 
feast, can ever forget her. She was a Methodist of the old- 
fashioned working type, whose heart was so full of love to Christ 
that she could not but speak and work for him. Is this old- 
fashioned type of Methodism dying out ? 



METHODISM IN EASTERN BRITISH AMERICA. 231 

in an interesting way, with Methodism in Newfound- 
land and in Ireland, which deserves, perhaps, some 
notice before closing this chapter — the late Captain 
Hedlet Yickers. His father, Captain Yickers, of the 
Royal Engineers, was stationed at St. John's, Newfound- 
land, where he was induced to attend the ministry of 
the late Rev. George Cubitt, of the British Conference. 
He was light and trifling in his spirit, and somewhat 
deistical in his sentiments, but under the powerful 
ministry of Mr. Cubitt he saw and felt his guilt and 
alienation from God, and speedily rejoiced in a sense of 
the pardoning and adopting love of God. He soon be- 
came, like Captain Webb, a Methodist local preacher, 
and from our pulpit at St. John's, and elsewhere, dressed 
in full uniform, proclaimed the Gospel of Christ to his 
former companions in vice and folly. He got married 
at St. John's, and the lady of his choice was a devoted 
Methodist. She was the mother of the late Captain 
Hedley Yickers, of the far-famed "Ninety-seventh," 
a circumstance which no doubt will go far to explain 
the Christian character and services of young Yickers. 
Many years later the family of the elder Captain Yickers 
resided at Mullingar, Westmeath ; and the amiable 
Captain himself and his wife, and young Hedley, were 
stated attendants at the Methodist Chapel, Mullingar, 
and felt that they had no cause to be ashamed of the 
Church connected with which they found the Saviour. 
The biographer of Hedley Yickers must of course have 
known full well that he was the child of Methodist 
parents, and most deeply indebted to Methodist teach- 



232 IRELAND AND THE ORIGIN OP METHODISM, ETC. 

ing and influence, both in Newfoundland and in Ireland ; 
and yet, copying the honourable example of the Rev. 
Leigh Richmond, in the " Dairyman's Daughter," most 
carefully and studiously suppressed all reference to 
Methodism ! The book would not command a sale in 
a certain market if it were a truthful biography. And 
this, forsooth, is Christianity ! 

In the Minutes of the British Conference for 1865, 
we find the following statistics of the Eastern British 
American Conference — Circuits, 109; Chapels, 212; 
other Preaching Places, 374; Ministers, 148; Subordi- 
nate Agents, 859 ; Members, 15,125 ; on trial for 
Church Membership, 1772 ; Scholars in the Schools, 
13,255 ; Attendants on Public Worship, 54,875. It 
has also an important and influential University, under 
the Presidency of the Rev. Humphrey Pickard, D.D., 
— a name well known to many in Ireland. During the 
last year the College was totally destroyed by fire ; but 
with true Anglo-Saxon enterprise, arrangements were 
at once concluded for rebuilding it, with various im- 
provements on the former plan, and the foundation of 
the new edifice was laid by the Rev. Dr. George Scott, 
during his recent visit as President of the Conference. 
"We could name but few divisions of the Methodistic 
family who have more of the family spirit, enterprise, 
and success, than the young and rising Conference of 
Eastern British America. 



PL 

Jrilanfc anir America. 



" It was an Irish Methodist minister who first introduced Methodism 
into Eastern British America. It was the Irish Methodist Church that 
gave us our Butler, who planted Methodism in India. He came here, and 
remained with us long enough to receive some of our Yankee spirit ; and 
then, in the true spirit of a Christian missionary, he went to that distant 
land, and with much toil, and in much sickness, and in much peril, he 
planted American Methodism there, which has now become a plant of 
sturdy growth, and is giving to millions of those benighted and perishing 
heathens the fragrance and the fruit of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. The fact is, that wherever English-speaking Methodism 
exists out of England, it has been planted by Irishmen ; and English- 
speaking Methodism is Irish Methodism the world over. I call, therefore, 
upon English-speaking Methodism, everywhere, to sustain Ireland now in 
the time of her trial, and in this season of her enlarged activity. " — Speech 
oj Rev. Bishop Janes, at the Centenary Meeting at St. Paul's Church, New 
York. 



CHAPTER XII. 



CONCLUDING CHAPTER— IRISH METHODISM, ITS PECULIAR DIFFI- 
CULTIES AND SUCCESS — IRELAND'S POLITICAL TROUBLES — THE 
HAND OF GOD IN EMIGRATION — DR. M'CLINTOCK's VISIT TO 
HIS FAMILY HOMESTEAD IN TYRONE — ENGLISH AND AMERI- 
CAN SYMPATHY WITH IRELAND DURING THE FAMINE — IRE- 
LAND'S SYMPATHY WITH AMERICA DURING THE REBELLION 
OF THE SLAVE POWER — BISHOP JANES' SPEECH ON THE DEBT 
OF AMERICAN METHODISM TO IRELAND — SUCCESS OF THE 
IRISH GENERAL MISSION IN DEALING WITH POPERY— DISCON- 
TINUED FOR WANT OF FUNDS — PRESENT DANGER OF ENGLISH 
AND AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM FROM IRISH POPERY — DR. 
WYLIE'S REMARKS ON IRELAND AS A SOURCE OF STRENGTH 
TO THE PAPACY— DR. MANNING ON THE TRIUMPHS AND 
PROGRESS OF POPERY IN GREAT BRITAIN— DR. BROWNLEE ON 
POPERY IN THE UNITED STATES— PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS — 
SPECIAL EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF IRISH ROMANISTS 
IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA — IRISH METHODISM AND WANT 
OF CAPITAL — GREAT LIBERALITY OF IRISH METHODISM — 
WHAT IT MIGHT DO IF ADEQUATELY SUPPORTED. 

13EFORE closing this little book and sending it 
■ abroad, I feel that I should embrace this opportu- 
nity of saying a few words on the claims of Irish 
Methodism on English-speaking Methodism everywhere, 
but particularly in America. This book has already 
outgrown my original idea very much, and these part- 
ing words, in taking leave of the indulgent reader, 
must be few. No one, I think, can fully understand 



236 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



the peculiar position and difficulties of Irish Metho- 
dism, who has not spent some years in the Itinerancy 
in Ireland, and seen Methodism in all the Provinces, 
and from behind the scenes as well as from without. 
If we are to estimate power by the difficulty which it 
surmounts in its victorious march, I may be allowed to 
think that Irish Methodism will compare favourably 
with any branch of the great Wesley an family in any 
part of the world. Nowhere has it had more stern and 
formidable external difficulties. In the North it has 
won tens of thousands of converts to its glorious doc- 
trine of General Redemption, and this, notwithstand- 
ing the most organized and persevering opposition from 
the most ultra type of Calvinism to be found, perhaps, 
in any part of our world. It has not only made itself 
known in all the principal towns in Ulster, but felt too, 
and its influence in liberalising the tone of Calvinistic 
preaching and theology, has been incalculable. In the 
South and West it has been confronted and opposed by 
High Church influence, backed by enormous wealth, 
aristocratic pride, and indomitable prejudice ; and 
everywhere, popery, like a fearful Upas tree, sus- 
tained by tens of thousands of pounds from the purse 
of Protestant England (tell it not in Gath, pub- 
lish it not in the streets of Askelon!) has opposed its 
progress. Meantime, without national endowment, 
without foreign assistance deserving of notice, it has 
not only maintained its position throughout the land, 
but has a stronger position, in proportion to the popu- 
lation now, than at any former period of its history. 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



237 



And never had it a more noble, true-hearted, and enter- 
prising band of sons and daughters the \t the present 
hour, and this after having given at leas Jive times its 
present ministerial staff to the ranks of our ministry in 
England, the United States, the Canadas, Eastern 
British America, Australia, and various parts of our 
foreign mission field, and perhaps ten times the number 
at present enrolled in its membership. Suppose the 
politico-religious circumstances of the country had been 
different, so that its sons and daughters were not driven 
by the stern hand of necessity to seek a home in a foreign 
land, would not Irish Methodism be, in proportion to 
the population, by far the most powerful section of the 
Methodist family on this side of the Atlantic 1 ? 

But this emigration, over which we mourn from year 
to year, is doubtless overruled for great good to other 
lands, in the wise Providence of God. Eacts like those 
noted in this book ought thoroughly to animate Irish 
Methodism, and lead its rising sons and daughters to 
rally anew around that noble banner which our fathers 
committed to our hands. If we are faithful, the dark- 
est chapter in the history of Methodism in Ireland will 
one day shine with a lustre peculiar to itself. Mean- 
time, emigration has established a peculiar sympathy 
between Ireland and America. During Dr. M'Clintock's 
visit to his family homestead in the County Tyrone, he 
went into a poor cabin, inhabited by a poor widow in 
the decline of life. A friend, who accompanied him, 
happened to say that he was from America. Instantly 
the old woman's fading eye brightened as in the days 
Q 



238 IRELAND AND AMERICA. 

of her youthful prime, and she said, "America? ah, 
then, sir, do you know our Eliza 1 ?" We smile at the 
simplicity of this poor woman, but there is scarcely a 
homestead in Ireland but has its representative in the 
far West, and scarcely a family some member of which 
does not sleep beneath the green sward of America ! 
This sympathy will serve to explain the deep interest 
felt in America towards Ireland during the famine of 
1846, 1847; and the noble contributions which she 
sent for the relief of the destitute and the dying, while 
that dark cloud hung over our unhappy land. What- 
ever faults Ireland may have, ingratitude is not one of 
them; and the noble generosity of America at that hour 
of distress, will never be forgotten in Ireland. Irish 
Eomanists understood full well, that in the hour of 
their extremity, relief came not from Popish Austria, 
or Popish Spain, or Popish Prance, or Popish Italy; — 
the Pope parted with not a farthing to save millions of 
his famishing subjects;' — but from Protestant England, 
Scotland, and especially America. 

The same thought will help us to understand the pro- 
found interest manifested in Ireland for the great 
Eepublic during its recent noble struggle with the 
slave power. I think, nowhere out of America, was 
the real question more fully understood; nowhere was 
the progress of the Eederal cause watched with more 
profound interest, and nowhere was the joy more deep 
and general when the first note of victory came, and 
the Stars and Stripes waved proudly in the breeze over 
the Eepublic unbroken and free ! 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



239 



And if there is a peculiar sympathy "between Ireland 
and America, in a social point of view as the result of 
emigration, the same cause will explain the sympathy 
between Irish and American Methodism. Irish Metho- 
dism is the parent of Methodism on the great American 
Continent, as we have seen, and may well thank God 
and take courage as it surveys transatlantic Methodism 
in this memorable Centenary year; but it has done far 
more than give existence to American Methodism. It 
has given it ministers like John Summerfield, John 
Newland Mafpitt, and John Kenneday among the 
dead, who attracted national attention, and won national 
fame; and like Dr. Elliott, Dr. M'Clintock, and 
Bishop Simpson, to name no others amongst the living; 
and hence we are not surprised at the noble gift from 
American Methodism to our College in Belfast. It is 
but an instalment of the vast debt American Methodism 
owes to Ireland. As Bishop Janes said in his speech 
at New York, when speaking on the claims of Ireland, 
"But Ireland not only furnished the first Methodist 
Ministers to this country, she has continued to furnish 
them until this day. We cannot enter into particulars 
here. I will give you an illustration. I ask, what does 
Methodism in New York and its vicinity owe to the 
charming and almost heavenly sweetness with which 
Summerfield preached Christ and him crucified to the 
people here 1 How much does our Church in this city 
and elsewhere owe to the able, devoted, and earnest 
ministry of Thomas Burch 1 What is our indebtedness 
to the naturally graceful, pathetic eloquence with which 



240 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



John Kenned ay proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation 
to us and to our fathers 1 Now, I do not know that 
New York and its vicinity have been more favoured 
in this respect than other parts of our Church and 
country. And if this be true, that Ireland has fur- 
nished to our. connection such a ministry as this of 
which I have spoken, how immense is our obligation 
to Irish Methodism for this boon 1 And at the present 
day how much is the element of Irish character in our 
ministry 1 

" I cannot detain you to-night to speak of the 
different men whose names come up before me. A 
Reddy of the Oneida Conference ; an Irwin of the 
Black River Conference ; a Hill of the Iowa Confer- 
ence ; a Haney of the Central Illinois Conference ; and 
all over the land they come up before my mind — men 
of character, ability, devotion, usefulness, and power 
in the Church. Dr. Scott, when in this country, 
ascertained the names of two hundred and forty 
ministers from Ireland who are now labouring in our 
itinerant work.* 

" And it is not only in the ministry that we have 
thus been aided by the parent Church, but also in the 
laity. I doubt whether there is a single Board of 
Trustees of the Church in this city that has not an 
Irishman in it. I doubt whether there is a Board of 

* I am satisfied that there are more than twice this numher. 
A document by Professor Leavitt, printed in 1858, now lies 
before me, in which he says that there were four hundred then. 
There were many whose names Dr. Scott could not ascertain. 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



241 



Stewards or a Board of Leaders, that has not Irish 
brethren in its ranks. Go to our Local Preachers' 
Associations, and you will find in all of them men of 
talent, fidelity, and usefulness, who are local preachers 
from Ireland, as was Embury. And then if we go to 
the children of Irish Methodists who have come to this 
country — the second generation — how much more use- 
ful, and how exceedingly useful are they among us 
in the laity and in the ministry ! Why, if my memory 
serves me right, when in Ireland last summer, I heard 
the people there talking about the grave of the grand- 
parents of Dr. M'Clintock ; and, if I mistake not, I 
heard them talking about the ancestral home of Bishop 
Simpson. Ireland is on the platform here to-night ; 
and not only have we received ministers and laymen, 
good men and good women, in the Church, but these 
men have contributed to the financial strength of the 
Church. They have helped to build our churches, to 
endow our colleges, and to sustain our ministry ; and 
if we were to pay them back the hundred thousand 
dollars in full, I doubt whether we should even pay the 
interest on the money which they have put into our 
treasury."'* 

Further, are not both England and America in great 
danger from Irish Popery just now ? And is it not the 
dictate of ordinary prudence and self-interest, as well 
as Christianity, to strengthen the hands of Methodism 

* From speech of Bishop Janes at the Centenary Meeting, at 
St. Paul's Church, New York, and copied in the "Irish Evan- 
gelist" for April, 1866. 



242 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



in Ireland — the only agency that has yet told to any 
serious extent upon the Irish Eoman Catholic mind 1 
In 1799 — the year after the last Popish Eebellion, 
while the smoke of that fearful conflagration was still 
ascending — the Irish Conference projected the first 
organised mission ever attempted in Ireland, with direct 
reference to the Eomanist population. Graham and 
Ouseley, with an intrepidity which, I venture to think, 
has been rarely surpassed in the history of the Church, 
volunteered for this arduous mission, and from day to 
day preached in Irish on horseback, in the fairs and 
markets of the principal towns and populous villages in 
Ireland. Speedily, priestly wrath waxed hot ; the 
" black caps " (as they were called) were denounced 
from the altar ; Ouseley had one of his eyes knocked 
out in the street ; and the mission was prosecuted at 
the imminent danger of life. But still these noble 
evangelists, unmoved by fear, sublimely held on their 
way, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer 
shame and reproach in such a cause. The success of 
this heroic mission was truly marvellous. At the Con- 
ference of 1801, two years after its establishment, the 
folio wing report was published by the Conference in its 
official record : — 

" What success has attended the Irish Missions in 
the last year 1 

A. — " I. In respect to the Northern Mission. 

" 1st. The success of the Northern Mission has been 
very considerable among the Eoman Catholics. 

" 2nd. Its usefulness has been almost unbounded in 
stirring up the Protestants, and has been the 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



243 



means, jointly with the labours of the regular 
preachers, in the conversion of vast numbers. 
" II. In respect to the Western Mission [Connemara, 
&c] 

" 1st. In various places in the West, many hundreds, 
and frequently thousands, of the Roman Catholics 
have attended the preaching of the missionaries ; 
and if weeping, trembling, and falling down in 
the streets, be marks of being awakened, or at 
least of being deeply affected, great good has been 
done in this quarter. 

" 2nd. Considerable good has been done by this 
Mission amongst the Protestants. Very many 
were stirred up, and a considerable number con- 
verted to God in consequence of the Mission. 

"III. In respect to the Southern Mission [Co. 
Limerick, Dingle, &c] 

"1st Yery large congregations of Roman Catholics 
attended the missionaries in general in the streets, 
and many of them also followed the missionaries 
to our preaching-houses. Some were much 
affected. 

" 2nd. In the city of Limerick and the neighbouring 
country, multitudes of the Eoman Catholics heard 
with attention. Many appeared to be truly 
awakened, and there was every appearance of a 
good work ; but the missionaries being obliged to 
leave those parts, their success could not be 
followed up."* 

* Minutes of the Irish Conference, vol. I., p. 137-138. See 
also the Irish Evangelist for August, 1865. 



244 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



Dr. Coke was the father of this mission, and for 
many years collected, principally in England, the funds 
necessary for its support. The number of missionaries 
employed from year to year varied with the amount 
received for this special object. The Irish Conference 
seem to have had any number of volunteers who were 
prepared to join the ranks of " the cavalry preachers" 
— the legio tonans of the Church. Young men on 
trial, like John Nelson (who still lives with us, with 
a full share of the fire of the early Itinerancy — and 
long may he live !) joined the corps with holy enthu- 
siasm, and a year or two on the " General Mission" was 
regarded as the most effective training for our regular 
work.* Many might not feel disposed to think much 
of so desultory a mode of warfare, and perhaps would 
predict that but little tangible success would result from 
it. But this would be a very hasty and one-sided con- 
clusion. There was far more organisation than was 
apparent ; converts joined the Church in those localities 
where we had a society, and classes of the newly 
awakened and converted were formed where we had 
not • so that within a few years of the establishment of 

* I am reminded, as 1 write this, of old Thomas Brown, one 
of the veterans of that period, of whom I often heard my father 
speak. He was in the regular work at the time to which I 
refer, and had a young man in his first year of service appointed 
with him. The day of the young brother's arrival was market- 
day, and Brown at once accompanied him to the centre of the 
market. He met one of the leaders in the street, and after 
introducing the new preacher, dryly said, "lam going to try 
this lad in the market, come and see how he will do!" 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



245 



this Mission, Dr. Coke reported about seven hundred 
converts from Romanism, who were then enrolled in 
regular membership with our Church. And this was 
but a small part of the result ; thousands of the 
awakened left the country, and found an asylum in the 
United States and Canada, where many of them subse- 
quently were converted, and some entered our ministry.* 
How sad to think that, while the fields all around were 
white unto the harvest, challenging the friendly sickle 
and the vigorous arm, this noble Mission was allowed 
to languish, and ultimately to die, for want of funds ! 

For many years this agency, so signally owned of God, 
was abandoned, and a new generation of Romanists 
grew up around us, with reference to whom our ordi- 
nary appliances were comparatively useless, and now 
these are thrown, in tens of thousands, upon the prin- 
cipal towns of England, Scotland, and America, to the 
imminent danger of our common Protestantism. Many 
in England and America, whose eye, perchance, may 
fall on this page, may smile at the idea of danger to 
either England or America from so contemptible a foe 
as Irish Popery. Eut they will allow me to say, that 
thoughtful men in Ireland regard their apathy and 
apparent insensibility to danger, as about the gravest 
aspect of the case. May I beg of them to read thought- 
fully the following weighty sentences, from the pen of 
one of the ablest men of the day, and who has made 
the Eomish controversy a life-long study. 

" We are disposed to view the whole state and con- 
* As the Rev. Dr. Cooney of Canada. 



246 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



dition of the Irish race as presenting a ground of 
greater anxiety to the friends of truth, and a source of 
greater peril to the Protestantism of the empire, and, 
indeed, to the Christianity of the world, than any other 
that at this moment exists on the face of the earth. In 
the degradation of that race the Church of Eome has 
found a lever of tremendous power for aggrandizing 
herself. What that Church accomplished in other 
days by the arms of France, by the wealth of Spain, 
by the statesmanship of Italy, she is now doing, and 
doing more successfully, by means of the mental de- 
basement and physical destitution of Ireland. In 
short, Ireland in her hands has become a great Mis- 
sionary institute. The swarms of emigrants in rags, 
which are cast upon our shores, which crowd our cities, 
which burrow in our poorhouses, and swelter in our 
jails, are just the missionaries which that great institute 
is sending forth to spread the superstition and the domi- 
nion of Eome over the empire. No weapon comes wrong 
to the hand of Eome ; and, while dreading her power, as 
well we may, we are compelled to admire the genius of 
a church which can so adapt her policy to every age, 
and to all countries. 

" That Church has seen deeper into the matter of 
Irish destitution than any of us. True, she has raised 
a mighty outcry about that destitution : she has made 
the world resound with her lamentations over the 
sufferings of the Irish race and the oppressions of 
their Saxon tyrants. And she has managed to get 
credit for full sincerity in her well-simulated sorrow. 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



247 



Most men have thought that the Church of Eome was 
in very deed overwhelmed by the sight of a race so 
degraded and so miserable ; and that, if the priesthood 
had the power, by word or sign, of annihilating that 
misery, it would be instantly ended, and to-morrow's 
sun would rise upon Ireland a nourishing and happy 
country; — trade filling its cities, cultivation clothing 
its fields, and abundance of bread gladdening all its 
dwellings. We must take leave to doubt whether, 
though the priesthood could simply by a word change 
Ireland into a happy country, they would speak that 
word. Have the priesthood a motive to annihilate the 
misery of Ireland ? Have they not rather a motive to 
perpetuate it ? Were they to annihilate the degrada- 
tion of the Irish race, would they not to a large extent 
shear the locks of their own strength, and dry up a 
source of power which far transcends any other instru- 
mentality at this hour in possession of their Church, 
for spreading their superstition and ascendancy over 
the earth ? 

" Let us illustrate our point by taking a single in- 
stance. "We all know that among the other orders of 
men in her service Eome keeps an order of monks, 
lor some of her clergy she provides a splendid palace, 
a luxurious table, and a robe of purple. Others she 
attires in a hair shirt, a girdle with iron spikes, and, 
throwing a wallet over their shoulders, she sends them 
forth with naked foot and shaven crown, to beg from 
door to door. That mendicant monk renders as effec- 
tual service to the cause of the Church as that princely 



248 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



cardinal. The cloak of serge and pilgrim's staff of the 
one is as essential to the good of the general body as 
the purple robe and gilded chariot of the other. And 
why may not that Church, which serves her interests 
so effectually by maintaining this gradation and variety 
among her clergy, serve her interest no less effectually 
by maintaining a similar gradation and variety among 
the nations subject to her ? Why may not that Church 
find it for the general good to keep a mendicant nation ? 
Ireland is that nation. The Irish are the monks of the 
Papal world. She takes them fresh from the sod, all 
unwashed as they are ; and, without putting a single 
patch upon their garments, or a single loaf in their 
wallets, she sends them forth — their outer man all 
aflutter with rags, and their inner man all on fire with 
zeal — to beg, for the love of the Virgin, and the glory 
of the Church, among the wealthy heretical nations of 
Christendom. 

"We all know the sad history of those poor Italian 
boys whom we see at times in our streets. Torn from 
Italy, with the tint of Italy's sun upon their cheek, 
and the music of Italy's tongue upon their lip, they are 
compelled to grind in our cities for their avaricious 
masters. Rome is doing the same thing on a vastly 
greater scale. She has taken the poor Irish race — so 
amply endowed with native genius, so rich in generous 
sympathies, and in loving and trustful dispositions — 
and she is leading them about over the world to grind 
sad music indeed, and all for pennies to fill her coffers. 
Most indulgent mistress ! Most compassionate Church ! 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



249 



When they have gathered a crowd, and attracted notice 
by their doleful strains, sung upon their harp, which 
has so long been attuned only to sorrow, lifting up her 
voice, she cries aloud, ' Behold the woes of this once 
glorious country ! pity the sorrows of this noble but 
downtrodden race ! ' accompanying her words, the 
while, with floods of tears, as copious and as sincere as 
ever roiled down the cheek of crocodile. In this way does 
Rome work her great mission institute ; for the real 
propaganda at this hour is not at Eome ; it is not at 
Lyons ; it is in Ireland ; it is where the Atlantic 
surge breaks high on the bleak coast of Galway, and the 
black bog stretches drearily out to the horizon at 
Connemara. .... 

" These missionaries, too, are sent forth in that very 
condition in which they are best fitted for doing her 
work. All the blood she shed in the dark ages by the 
hands of her judges and executioners, was as nothing 
compared with the blood she shed by the hands of the 
rabble. It was by the rabble, sometimes in the shape 
of mobs, sometimes in the shape of regular armies, that 
she carried on her crusades and massacres from the 
thirteenth to the sixteenth century. And when blood 
shall again begin to flow in this country, the first 
shedding of it will be by the hands ol the rabble. 

"But the main use and service, meanwhile, of the 
Irish race, is to form a foothold for the Popish hierarchy 
all over the Protestant world. What is the key by 
which the Church has succeeded in opening the British 
Exchequer, and drawing from it some three hundred 



250 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



thousand pounds per year ? That key is the poor Irish. 
This is the open sesame before which the golden doors 
of the Treasury fall back, and the riches of Britain are 
poured at the Church's feet. What is it that has 
enabled her to place her chaplains in the army and in 
our convict' prisons 1 Still it is the Irish- — the Irish 
soldier, the Irish criminal. On what pretext does she 
demand paid chaplains in all our prisons 1 It is still 
the Irish. I have given you, she says, so many crimi- 
nals, in return for these I demand so many gold guineas. 
With these I will manufacture more criminals, which 
will bring me more gold guineas. And thus the two 
kinds of manufacture go on most prosperously together. 
What is it that has given to her reformatories with their 
ample endowments, grants of land and money in the 
colonies, and schools from which the Bible is excluded 
in Western Canada ? What is it that is feeding the 
already great mass of Popery in the valley of the 
Mississippi, as well as in Australia 1 It is the Irish. 
Yerily, in Irish destitution she has found a mine of 
exhaustless wealth, and of boundless power."* 

Am I wrong in saying that both Great Britain and 
America are at the present hour in fearful danger from 
the influx of Irish Popery 1 And are not the Maynooth 
apostolical bachelors paying off Protestant England 
smartly for her national apostacy from the God of her 
fathers 1 It is easy for liberal Protestants (so called) to 
say, "we shall meet the crisis when it comes." " The 

* "Wylie on Rome and Civil Liberty. A Book for the Times, by 
a Man of the Time, pp. 107-112. 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



251 



CRISIS IS NOW, WHAT WILL COME WILL PROVE THE CATAS- 
TROPHE!" The progress of Popery in England and 
Scotland in our day is truly alarming, and mainly 
through. Irish Priests and Irish Popery. Dr. Manning 
regards the ascendancy of Popery in England as so in- 
evitable, from her present position and prospects, that 
he throws off the mask so long worn gracefully by his 
lying mistress, and in the face of Protestant England 
avows the intention of the Popish Church to regain its 
ancient ascendancy in England, and within a brief period 
too ! He says : — " It is the duty, therefore, of Catholics 
to prepare themselves for the future which is before 
them. They little thought thirty years ago to be as 
they are now. 

"They little thought ten years ago of the majestic ex- 
pansion of the Catholic Church at this hour, and of its 
dignified attitude of calm in the midst of the religious 
confusion and dissolution which is around it. Still 
less can we anticipate what the next ten years may 
bring. The advance of the Church is in geometrical 
progression." * That this is not an idle boast, but sober 
matter of fact, an appeal to statistics will prove. The 
same thing is true, to an alarming extent, in the land of 
John Knox. "Throughout Scotland, in 1830, there 
were not 50 Priests in all; there are now 200 — more 
than 4 to 1 ! There were then but 25 Chapels in all; 
there are now 200, besides the Cathedrals — 8 to 1. 
There were then no Convents; there are now 14. 
There were then no Public Schools; there are now 102 
* Essays on Religion and Literature. Edited by Dr. Manning. 



252 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



in efficient working order"* In the light of these 
figures, how suggestive the fact that one fifth of the 
entire population of Glasgow are Irish Romanists! 

I question if matters are much better or less alarm- 
ing in the United States. The language of the late 
Archbishop Hughes (himself an Irish Priest), is not all 
idle boasting, as somesanguine Protestants mayimagine.t 
Rome is playing her game well in America, as in Eng- 
land and Scotland, and Ireland is the right arm of her 
strength there, as at home. " It has recently appeared 
on good authority, that she is making it a special study 
how to distribute little colonies of Catholics in all the 
new territories, with a view to anticipate population, 
and get the start of the Protestants, and so pollute the 
waters of truth at the fountains. These circumstances 
have much, very much, to do with the emigration which 
is going on in Ireland. It is now clear that it is not 
mere want of bread that is prompting this continued 
stream of emigration. The priests deem Ireland safe, 
it is all their own. The object, therefore, of the priest- 
hood is, in conjunction with the Vatican, and in con- 
currence with the hierarchy of Ireland, as much as may 
be, to draw off the water of this mighty lake of the 
Papacy to fill the new reservoirs being everywhere 
created across the Atlantic." J 

* Dr. Campbell on Popery, Ancient and Modern, p. 62. 

+ See The Decline of Protestantism and its Cause. A Lecture 
delivered in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, by the Eev. 
John Hughes, D.D., Archbishop of New York. (New York : 
Edward Dunigan and Brother.) 

X Dr. Campbell's Popery, Ancient and Modern, p. 345. As 
this sheet was passing through the press, Zion's Herald of 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



253 



Dr. Brown lee, of New York, in his masterly work 
on Popery in America, says, " No great pains liave 
been taken to conceal the facts in this matter. We 
have every evidence but the open confession of the con- 
spirators. Some of the prime movers have made strik- 
ing avowals. Bishop England, in a circular published 
in Ireland, shows that there is an organised system of 
means in operation to throw in upon us immense bodies 
of Popish emigrants." Already, the authorities of 
many important towns in England, Scotland, and 
even America, are intimidated by the Irish mob, insti- 
gated by the priests from behind the scenes. Thus 
street-preaching has been put down in many of our 
principal towns through fear of the mob ! Dr. Brownlee 
asks, " Who holds it in his power to let loose mobs on 
us at his will ?" "I told him," said the Lady Superior 
on her oath, " that Bishop Pen wick's influence over 
10,000 brave Irishmen might lead to the destruction of 
his property and that of others ! " 

August 15th came to haud from Boston, from which I copy the 
following, which, though seriously exaggerated, is sufficiently 
startling. "The Boston Pilot, a Roman Catholic paper, says — 
f But we are going to correct the Methodist statistics, so as to 
shoAV the Catholic increase in the period of time covered by the 
Report of the Committee of the Convention. From the best 
data at hand, as we write, we find that while the Congregation- 
alists have been increasing but seven per cent., the Baptists 
twelve per cent., and the Methodists forty-three per cent., the 
Catholics have increased three hundred and ninety-two per cent. 
We think that this is under the actual fact, which we shall pro- 
ceed to ascertain by the correct figures, as soon as we can ascer- 
tain them.' " 
R 



254 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



But what is to be done ? The crisis is most serious, 
and demands the most prompt and vigorous action on 
the part of the Methodist Church, both in England and 
America. I think that our brethren in the various towns 
in England, Scotland, and America, where large masses 
of Irish Eomanists assemble, should organize a Mission- 
ary Institute, including a controversial class, schools, 
and preaching, with direct reference to their conversion 
from Popery to Christ. "Why not 1 Are they afraid to 
encounter Irish Eomanism in a free Protestant country t 
Let them try it ; if nothing more comes of it, they will, 
at least, learn to sympathise with the difficulties of 
bearding the Hon in his own den. 

I think, moreover, that the " General Mission " of the 
Irish Methodist Conference should receive a generous 
support from our people, both in England and America. 
I see no reason why the Methodists of America should 
not support a General Missionary for each of our 
Provinces, and believe that it would repay its cost to 
themselves an hundred-fold. And why should we not 
be supplied with ample means for acting aggressively 
on the Eomish population at Oughterard, and else- 
where? Who is prepared to say that if Irish 
Methodism planted a Missionary Institute in some 
centre of Irish Popery, and worked it as faithfully and 
perseveringly as our mission to Eigi, and expended as 
much money upon it, that it would not prove quite as 
productive ? But the one is in the South Seas and the 
other in Ireland ; and " distance lends enchantment to 
the view ! " During the past half century, we have 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



255 



spent some hundreds of thousands of pounds in con- 
tending with Brahmin ism in India, though the influence 
of the gigantic superstition is not felt in the United 
Kingdom, and the cause of Protestantism is in no 
danger whatever from it. We still bravely persevere 
without much apparent result, endeavouring to under- 
mine the colossal fabric, and looking for the blessing of 
God on the faithful use of the varied appliances brought 
to bear upon it. All this is reasonable and right ; 
would to God we had ten times as much to expend 
upon India. But Ireland, — the last country in Europe 
whose sons succumbed to the Man of Sin, and then only 
after a fearful struggle with the united power of England 
and the Pope ; Ireland, — whose ragged Popish children 
swelter in thousands in all the principal towns in Great 
Britain and America, to the imminent danger of the 
public peace and of the Protestant liberties secured by 
the blood of our noble fathers ; Ireland, — the seat and 
centre of the most indomitable type of the most indomi- 
table and influential superstition the world ever saw, or 
ever will see, — is treated with comparative neglect ! 
Eight dearly has Protestant Christendom paid for that 
neglect and folly in the past ; and right dearly, if I 
mistake not, will her children pay for it in the days 
that are yet to come. 

Bishop Janes asks — " Shall Methodists or Komanists 
come to America from Ireland ?" This little book 
proves that Irish Methodism has no cause to be 
ashamed of the children she has given to America. 
Not a few of them were won from the. ranks of the Man 



256 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



of Sin. These are but specimens of what she might do 
on a large scale if adequately supported. The Irish 
Methodist Church I believe to be the most liberal 
section of the Methodist family in Europe or America ; 
but it is languishing for want of capital to embrace 
promising openings, and do justice to itself. Probably 
more than half the chapels in Irish Methodism are 
without regular Sabbath preaching ; and in not a few 
the circuit minister never preaches on the Sabbath day, 
and cannot. Fifty new preaching places might be 
opened on the circuit in which this book is written, 
and probably more than two hundred within the terri- 
torial bounds of the District, within three months of the 
day on which I write this, if we had the ministerial 
labour to work them. But already the circuit plans 
are full, many of the ministers preaching every night 
in the week, and three times on the Sabbath : and 
opening new ground is out of the question without ad- 
ditional labourers. I have been in every county in 
Ireland, from Eathlin Island, beyond the Giant's 
Causeway, to Cape Clear ; I know Ireland, I believe, 
as well as any one whose eye will fall upon this page ; 
and I here register my deliberate conviction that, 
Methodistically, Ireland is not one fourth worked, and 
cannot be with its present ministerial staff. If we had 
a Home Missionary Institute, like that under the care 
of the Eev Charles Prest in England, and an income 
say of from £2000 to £5000 per annum, we might 
double or treble our present membership in Ireland 
within a few years. And who can tell what the 



IRELAND AND AMERICA. 



257 



result would be upon the cause op protestant 
Christianity, (in the United Kingdom and through- 
out the World), when American Methodism cele- 
brates her Second Centenary? 



I THINK the most remarkable chapter in Church 
History, in ancient or modern times, is supplied by 
the History and Progress of American Methodism in 
the past century. It forms no part of my design at 
present to attempt a solution of the philosophy of its 
success. The following statistics will give the reader 
the best idea of the fact of its success ; if there be any 
parallel case in the history of the Church, I confess I 
have not heard of it. I give these statistics on the 
authority of the Rev. Dr. Stevens, of New York, and 
I believe that they are below, rather than above, the 
true figures. 

" Embury's little congregation of five persons, in his 
own house, has multiplied to thousands of societies, 
from the northernmost settlements of Canada to the 
Gulf of Mexico — from Nova Scotia to California. The 
first small Conference of 1773, with its 10 preachers 
and its 1,160 reported members, has multiplied to 60 
Conferences, 6,821 Itinerants, 8,205 Local Preachers, 
and 928,320 Members in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church alone,- exclusive of the Southern, the Canadian, 
and minor branches, all the offspring of the Church 
founded in 1766, and episcopally organized in 1784. 

"It has property, in Churches and Parsonages, 
amounting to about twenty-seven millions of dollars. 

" It has 25 Colleges and Theological Schools, with 
property amounting to $3,055,000; 158 Instructors, 



APPENDIX. 



259 



5,345 Students; and 77 Academies, with 556 Instruc- 
tors, and 17,761 Students; making a body of 714 In- 
structors, and an army of 23,106 Students. 

"Its Church Property (Churches, Parsonages, and 
Colleges, aside from its 77 Academies and Book Con- 
cern), amounts to thirty millions and fifty-five thousand 
dollars ! 

"Its Book Concern has a capital of $837,000; 500 
Publishing Agents, Editors, Clerks, and Operatives, 
with some thirty cylinder power presses in constant 
operation; about 2,000 different books on its catalogue, 
besides tracts, &c. ; 14 Periodicals, with an aggregate 
circulation of more than a million copies per month ! 
Besides the above, it has five Independent, or non- 
official weekly Papers, with immense circulation. 

" Its Sunday-School Union comprises 13,400 Schools; 
more than 150,000 Instructors; nearly 918,000 pupils; 
and more than two millions and a half of library books ! 
It issues nearly 2,500 publications, besides a monthly 
circulation of nearly 300,000 numbers of its periodicals. 

"Its Missionary Society has 1,059 Circuits and Sta- 
tions; 1,128 Paid Labourers; and 105,675 Communi- 
cants. 

"The Methodist Episcopal Chuech, South, has 
published no Statistics since the rebellion broke out ; 
it has doubtless suffered much by the war; but it re- 
ported, the last year before the rebellion, nearly 700,000 
Church Members ; nearly 2,600 Itinerants, and 5,000 
Local Preachers. It had 12 periodical publications; 
12 Colleges, and 77 Academies, with 8,000 Students. 
Its Missionary Society sustained, at home and abroad, 
about 360 Missionaries, and 8 Manual Labour Schools, 
with nearly 500 Pupils. 

"According to these figures the two great Episcopal 
divisions of the denomination have had, at their latest 
reports, 1,628,320 Members; 9,421 Travelling, and 
13,205 Local Preachers; with 191 Colleges and Acade- 
mies, and 31,106 Students. 

"The Canada "Wesleyan Church was not only 



260 



APPENDIX. 



founded by, but for many years belonged to the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church; it now reports more than 
56,000 Members; 500 Itinerant Preachers; and 750 
Sunday-Schools, with about 45,000 Pupils; a Univer- 
sity; a Female College ; and a Book Concern, with its 
Weekly Periodical. 

"Another branch of Canadian Methodism, the 
'Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada,' equally 
the child of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 
United States, reports, 3 Annual Conferences; 2 Bishops; 
216 Travelling, and 224 Local Preachers ; and 20,000 
Members; a Seminary and Eemale College, and a 
Weekly Newspaper. 

"The Canadian Wesley an Methodist New Con- 
nexion Church reports, 90 Travelling, and 147 Local 
Preachers; and 8,450 Communicants. It sustains a 
Weekly Paper, and a Theological School. 

"The other Methodist bodies in the United States 
are, the ' Methodist Protestant Church,' the ' American 
Wesleyan Methodist,' the 'African Methodist Episco- 
pal Church,' and some three or four smaller sects ; this 
aggregate membership amounts to about 260,000, their 
preachers to 3,423. 

"Adding the Travelling Preachers to the Member- 
ship, there are now in the United States about 
1,901,164 Methodist communicants. Adding three 
non-communicant members of its congregation for each 
communicant, it has under its influence 7,604,636 souls 
— between one fifth and one fourth of the whole 
national population. 

"Aggregately there are now in the United States and 
Canada, as the result of the Methodism of 1766, 
1,972,770 Church Members, 13,650 Travelling Preach- 
ers, 15,000 Local Preachers, nearly 200 Colleges and 
Academies, and more than 30 Periodical Publications; 
1,986,420 Communicants, including Preachers, and 
nearly eight millions of people!* 

* These figures do not include Eastern British America. 



APPENDIX. 



261 



" The influence of this vast ecclesiastical force on the 
moral, intellectual, and social progress of the New 
World, can neither be doubted nor measured. It is 
generally conceded that it has been the most energetic 
religious element in the social development of the con- 
tinent. With its devoted and enterprising people dis- 
persed through the whole population ; its thousands of 
labourious Itinerant Preachers, and tens of thousands of 
Local Preachers and Exhorters ; its unequalled Publish- 
ing Agencies ; and powerful Periodicals, from the Quar- 
terly Ee view to the child's paper; its hundreds of Colleges 
and Academies; its hundreds of thousands of Sunday 
School Instructors ; its devotion to the lower and most 
needy classes; its animated mode of worship and reli- 
gious labour, it cannot be questioned that it has been a 
mighty, if not the mightiest, agent in the maintenance 
and spread of Protestant Christianity over these lands. 
It stands now on the threshold of its second century, 
mightier than ever, in all the elements and resources 
requisite for a still greater history."* 

These figures are not only interesting as illustrative 
of the power of Methodism under favourable circum- 
stances, but they supply an argument to which there is 
no answer, as to the superiority of the Voluntary prin- 
ciple as compared with the National Endowment System, 
in the maintenance and diffusion of religion. Here is a 
Church — without any endowment but the blessing of 
God on the consecrated brain and heart of its sons and 
daughters — and within a single century it has risen from 
five obscure persons, to influence and mould the cha- 
racter of about one fourth of the American population ! 
Dr. Dixon tells us, "There are no Sects in America, no 
Dissenters, no Seceders, or whatever other term may be 
employed to designate the position and standing of a 
Christian Society. They are alike considered as Chris- 
tians; and adopting, according to the judgment of 
charity, with equal honesty the common charter of sal- 
vation, the Word of God, they are treated as equal, 
and as possessing similar and indefeasible rights. 

* Centenary of American Methodism, 213-217. 



262 



APPENDIX. 



" This is certainly a new aspect of living and visible 
Christianity, and our business with it at present is to 
test its operation on society. Can perfect liberty and 
equality in religion work well when favoured by circum- 
stances as in the United States 1 Is Christianity itself, 
in its own revelations, its own glorious platform and 
basis, its own provisions and divinity, when made plain 
and put, into the hands of a people, sufficient without 
being formed and modified by the political society, to 
produce its legitimate fruits 1 Is this common Chris- 
tianity, as taught and developed in Scripture, sufficient 
for a nation? May the people of a State be safely left, 
other things being favourable, to this simple process 1 
This question is in course of solution in the United 
States. So far as it has been tested, it is believed to 
have answered."* 

This was written nearly twenty years ago ; and Dr. 
Dixon's questions were receiving an affirmative answer 
then from the stern voice of fact, from which there was 
no appeal. But let anyone carefully examine the above 
figures, published to the world in this Centenary year 
of American Methodism, and deny the transcendent 
superiority of the Voluntary System if he can. 

The insinuation that religion is superficial in America 
— that it has lost in depth what it has gained in breadth 
and extent — is, in my judgment, a mistake or a slander. 
I give two testimonies out of many now under my hand, 
that there is no truth whatever in this allegation; but 
the religion in America will lose nothing by comparison 
with any part of the United Kingdom. " For the first 
time since its junction with the State, has Christianity 
been thrown upon its own imperishable resources in the 
midst of a great people. And has it suffered from its 
novel position 1 Who accuses the Americans of being 
an irreligious people 1 Nay, rather, who can deny to 
them, as a people, a pre-eminence in religious fervour 
and devotion 1 ? .... Taking the country as a 
whole, the religious sentiment is more extensively 
diffused, and more active in its operation in America, 



* Dixon's Methodism in America, p. 145, 147. 



APPENDIX. 



203 



than in Great Britain. What then becomes of the sinis- 
ter prediction of those who assert that a State Connec- 
tion is necessary to the vigorous maintenance of Christi- 
anity 1 ... Is proof of the vitality and energy of 
religion wanted % Look at the number of its churches, 
the extent and character of its congregations, the fre- 
quency of its religious assemblies, the fervour of its 
religious exercises, and the devotion of its religious 
community, testified by their large and multifarious 
donations for religious purposes both at home and 
abroad."* 

This testimony from an impartial witness — an able 
and accomplished barrister — must be regarded as most 
satisfactory as to religion generally in the United States. 
The following is Bishop Janes' testimony as to Metho- 
dism in particular. "Does the Methodist Episcopal 
Church retain its simplicity and spirituality? Is it 
being built up with living stones ? Is it a spiritual 
house, a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices 
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ 1 We cannot 
search the hearts or discern the spirits of our brethren. 
We can only judge from outward signs, and even thus 
with great carefulness. Most of our members bring 
forth the fruits of good living. They testify, in class- 
meetings, and love feasts, and on other suitable occa- 
sions, to their enjoyment of God's pardoning mercy and 
adopting love, many of them of his sanctifying power. 
Our people, almost uniformly, prefer spiritual Scriptural 
preaching. We are favoured with frequent and exten- 
sive revivals ; and we can and do feel and say, ' The 
best of all is, God is with us.' As to the future, our 
success is likely to be greater than ever."t 

* Mackay's Western World, vol. III., pp. 252, 254. 

+ Bishop Janes' Address before the British Conference, 1865. 



NOTICES. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



I. 



Lately Published, Second Edition, 174 Pages, Crown 8vo,Cloth, 
Price 2/6. 



of the Rev. Willam Ceook, late Senior Minister of the 
Irish Methodist Conference, containing : — 

The Address in the Centenary Chapel, Dublin, by the Rev. 
Robert Masaroon, D.D. ; the Address in Maryborough, by 
the Rev. John F. Mathews ; the Funeral Sermon, by the 
Rev. Joseph W. M 'Kay, and a copious Sketch of his Life and 
Character. Edited by his eldest son, the Rev. William Crook. 

"Appropriate and touhcing memorials of a man who was 
beloved and venerated by multitudes. The ' Sketch ' is truly 
characteristic ; drawn by a filial hand, but faithfully. It com- 
prises no little of the history of our Hibernian work, which is 
related with many a sparkle of the writer's vivacity." — Wesley an 
Methodist Magazine. 

' * The Rev. William Crook was a noble specimen of sanctified 
humanity ; robust in constitution, decided in piety, inflexible 
in principle, fervent in spirit, vigorous in intellect, and abundant 
in labour, for nearly half a century he was an eminent and suc- 
cessful minister of Jesus Christ. The tributes which affection 
has paid to his memory are but a just appreciation of his excel- 
lencies ; and the Sketch of his Life and Character, furnished by 
his intelligent and devoted son, has the charm of graphic and 
life-like delineation, flushed with the delicate hues of tender 
filial affection. It will be read with peculiar interest and 
spiritual profit." — Methodist New Connexion Magazine. 

" A beautiful book in every point of view , It relates to a man 
whom I esteemed and loved from the time of our first acquaint- 
ance. My visits to Ireland led me to form a high opinion of 
the Irish preachers generally ; but no one made a more deep 
and favourable impression upon my heart than the honoured 
subject of this Sketch." — Rev. Thomas Jackson. 

' ' Valuable and well-arranged reminiscences of my ever dear 
and honoured friend, your late Father, and will form a suitable 
introduction to a larger history which I hope that you will by 
and by find time to give the Church." — Rev. Br. Hannah. 



<£rjxe J, mural Serbia: 




'■B on the occasion of the Death 



NOTICES. 



"A "beautiful and soul-refreshing Memoir. I read it with the 
deepest interest, and with real profit. It is a Sketch admirably- 
drawn of one who was eminently good, and really great in his own 
way." — Rev. Joseph Hargreaves. 

"I have read the work with much interest and profit, as the 
record of the life of a good man, and as giving much valuable 
information relative to a very interesting period of the history 
of Methodism in Ireland." — Rev. Dr. Cummings, President of 
the Wesley an University, Middletown, U. S. 

" This volume belongs to a class of biography of which we are 
in no danger of having too many. . . . . . His colleagues 

are always mentioned, and, except in the case of survivors, a 
brief estimate of their character is given. Most of them were not 
only true men, but noble and great men. If they are specimens 
of the sons Ireland furnishes to Methodism, English Methodism 
may be proud of its daughter. The excellent man has found a 
worthy biographer in his eldest son. Though the book is only 
just issued, we learn that a second edition is called for. We 
wonder not. We have here a little casket of biographic gems of 
Irish Methodism." — Methodist Recorder. 

"The ' Sketch,' from the opening to the closing page, bears so 
prominently the marks of reverential affection, blended with 
candour and fidelity, as at once and throughout disarms criticism. 
The scenery is so diversified, and portrayed in such a graphic and 
lively style, as to carry the reader eagerly along, and regret will 
be felt on reaching the end, that it has not been somewhat more 
amplified. We have seldom met, within the same space, so much 
of the philosophy of biography. ' '—Rev. , in Irish Evangelist. 

1 1 The incidents of his life are sketched with skill, in which 
filial love and reverence, and a scrupulous fidelity, are conspicuous 
features. Additional interest is imparted to this portion of the 
volume, by the references it contains to the labours of other 
Methodist preachers, of whom little is now known except their 
names, and the brief records found in the Minutes of Conference. 
. . . . The whole volume is most creditable to those who 
have engaged in this most befitting labour of love, and warmly 
do we commend it to all interested in the work of God." — 
Wesleyan Sunday-School Magazine. 

"The Sketch of his Life and Character which accompanies the 
able Addresses and Sermon by the Revs. E. Masaroon, John 
F. Mathews, and J. W. M'Kay, is a life-like portraiture of this 
venerable man. We warmly commend the book to those of our 
readers interested in Irish Methodism." — Christian Miscellany. 

"To me this interesting little volume was quite panoramic. 
I ran over nearly sixty years since we first met at the Belfast 



NOTICES. 



District, in May, 1807, and lived anew with a host of men worthy 
to be had in everlasting remembrance. " — Rev. Thomas Waugh. 

"I greatly admire the vivacity and nerve of this book. The 
portrait is very true, though drawn with a loving hand. I am 
not surprised to hear of a Second Edition in so short a time. It 
well deserves it." — Rev. James Tobias, Secretary of the Conference. 

"To my mind, the noblest attribute of any composition is 
power, and the most glorious of all power is power for good. 
This the volume has. I do not envy the man who could read it 
without feeling the depths of his heart stirred." — Rev. James 
C. Bass. 

' ' I have read this volume with deep interest and much profit. 
I think the narrative is admirably executed, the subject is made 
to speak for himself. It is simple, unadorned, and marks the 
idiosyncrasies of his character well. " — Rev. Dr. Appelbe. 

"I have perused this volume with great interest, and, I trust, 
not a little profit. He well deserved such a tribute, not only 
from his family, but from us as a people ; and this book is 
creditable to both. The interest one feels in the portrait, when 
seen only with groups of his itinerant contemporaries in the 
background, is greatly heightened by the introduction of the 
family scenes. I have no doubt that it will be extensively read 
in Ireland, and beyond it." — Rev. Dr. Robinson Scott. 

' ' This very handsome volume contains ' The Funeral Services 
on the occasion of the death of the Eev. William Crook, late 
Senior Minister of the Irish Methodist Conference, with a copious 
Sketch of his Life and Character. ' The Sketch is a tribute of 
filial piety from the Eev. William Crook, of Drogheda, to one 
who established an unquestionable claim on the respect and 
admiration of all who esteem a patient spirit of enterprise, and 
self-sacrificing life of labour. Mr. Crook was a native of the 
neighbouring county of Fermanagh, and so long since as 1804 
began the busy toil in which he continued for more than half a 
century. Having almost completed fourscore years, he descended 
to his grave amidst the love of his companions, and the esteem 
of a host of friends. The volume contains an admirable sermon 
by the Eev. Joseph W. M'Kay." — Tyrone Constitution. 

"This is a very graceful tribute to the memory of a great and 
good man. The editor has given us not only the Sermon and 
Addresses which were delivered on the occasion of his father's 
death — themselves a noble monument — but also a succinct and 
very beautiful sketch, which seems to bring the venerable old 
man before us, so true is it and picturesque. It would be super- 
fluous for us to dwell upon those graces and qualities which 
commended the senior minister of the Irish Conference to the 



NOTICES. 



love of his brethren, and to the admiration of his people. We 
hope our readers will acquaint themselves with a character, to 
which the piety of a son has yielded so fitting a homage. "We 
cannot refrain, however, from expressing our obligation to the 
editor for having given us, in connexion with a sketch of his 
father's life, many details respecting the labours of other honoured 
ministers, who were engaged in the founding of Irish Methodism. 
The incidents which are woven into this volume would furnish 
a valuable contribution to a future history of Methodism in 
Ireland." — London Quarterly Revieiv. 

II. 

In Crown 8vo, Paper Cover, Price 6d. 

ZQQXi Of {\t SjJWfttS at the Formation of the 
Hibernian Branch of the Methodist Missionary Society, 
in Whitefriar Street Chapel, Dublin, on Thursday, May 
5th, 1814. Edited by the Eev. William Crook. 



III. 

Are the Dead in the Sleep of Unconsciousness ? 

64 Pages, Crown 8vo, Paper Cover, Is.; Cloth, red edges, Is. 6d. 

KXRbm; ox, % ^xmxtt Jponu 0f ifa Jpalg 

A Discourse delivered in the Methodist Church, Drogheda, 
on Sunday Evening, October 18, 1863, on occasion of the death 
of the Most Rev. Eichard Whately, D.D., Archbishop of 
Dublin, with a Brief Sketch of his Life and Character. By the 
Rev. William Crook. 

"A very able discourse on an all-important subject, delivered 
on a most interesting occasion." — The Homilist. 

"Dr. Whately held the doctrine that the soul lies in a state 
of unconscious torpor till the general resurrection. This doctrine 
Mr. Crook undertakes to confute, and to state what we believe 
to be the Scriptural view. He ably combats the notion that the 
Jews had no knowledge of a future state, and explains the Sheol 
of the Old Testament, and the Hades of the New. He also 
opposes Faber's conjecture respecting the locality of Hades, and 
grapples manfully with the sleep-theory of Whately. There are 



NOTICES. 



some "beautiful remarks on mutual recognition in a future state, 
and on the expectation of perfected blessedness. The discourse 
is ably conceived, and vigorously written, and will amply repay 
perusal." — Methodist Recorder. 

"This discourse, like other productions from the pen of Mr. 
Crook, is distinguished by vigorous thinking and eloquence of 
style. While the author pays a just tribute to the gifts, labours, 
and personal excellence of Archbishop Whately, he successfully 
overthrows a notion to which Whately lent his great name — the 
unconsciousness of the soul between time of death and the 
resurrection — and proves, by a powerful array of Scripture 
evidence, that the soul in the separate state of being retains 
not only its vitality, but its consciousness, its power of thought, 
memory, reflection, volition, and emotion, unimpaired by the 
dissolution of the body, and immediately enters upon a state of 
happiness or woe." — Methodist Nevj Connexion Magazine. 

"This is a good and able Sermon, and is followed by a just 
and appreciative Sketch of Dr. Whately' s public career." — 
Evangelical Witness. 

1 1 A valuable and most profitable contribution to the theological 
literature of Methodism. " — Rev. John Rattenbury. 

"The argument is very triumphant." — Rev. John Farrar, 
Secretary of the Conference. 

"I have never seen this most important subject handled in 
such a masterly way, or to my mind so conclusively. The dis- 
course is characterised by remarkable ability, and spirit-stirring 
eloquence." — John D , Esq., Columbo, Ceylon. 

"I have read this most admirable Sermon with intense interest, 
and much profit. It is a masterpiece." — Rev. Dr. Pickard, 
Sackville, New Brunsioick. 

"An eloquent and argumentative defence of the generally 
received doctrine of the intermediate state." — Christian Miscel- 
lany. 

"The style is marked by a most agreeable combination of 
vivacity and strength ; and we have only to observe, that in this 
respect this Discourse will not disappoint anj\ Language in 
which beauty and vigour are united, is employed to express truth 
of the loftiest character, in the most unequivocal terms. Your 
attention cannot fail to be fixed, as you read page after page ; 
and, when you arrive at the end, you are at once sorry that it 
has been reached so soon, and thankful for the instruction and 
spiritual profit which you have received. The healthy tone of 
this book, both as regards the doctrine it teaches and the spirit 
it breathes, together with the ability displayed in the work, 
render it worthy of a very wide circulation." — Rev. N. R. in 
Irish Evangelist. 

"A Discourse of great vigour, and of marked ability." — Rev. 
Dr. Morison, of Glasgow, Editor of the Evangelical Repository. 



NOTICES. 



IV. 

64 Pages, Crown 8vo, Paper Cover, Price 6d. 

A Tract for the Times. Third Thousand. 1865. 

" We have read this very able end seasonable tract with great 
satisfaction. It is a thorough exposure and complete refutation 
of those subtle doctrinal errors, which, under the designation of 
the Plymouth Faith, were well known amongst us some years 
ago ; and which have recently, in the sister island, been revived 
and propagated by certain erratic and enthusiastic evangelists. 
"We are not surprised that errors, so nattering to human pride, 
and so adverse to practical godliness, should have numerous 
abettors ; but, if we have not utterly misunderstood and mis- 
interpreted the New Testament, this new Gospel is ' another 
gospel.' Mr Crook has done good service to the interests of 
Christianity by his calm, vigorous, and triumphant defence of 
the old Gospel." — Wesley an Methodist Magazine. 

' ' This ' Tract for the Times ' is from the pen of the able and 
vigorous Editor of the Irish Evangelist. Mr Crook is an 
acute controversialist, and dialectician. He exposes the theo- 
logical contradictions and inconsistencies, and the practical mis- 
chiefs of Plymouth-Brethrenism, with unsparing severity and 
withering sarcasm. "With the skill of a practised logician, he 
places his finger at once upon a fallacy, however subtle its disguise. 
The style is caustic and incisive, cutting to the very quick. 
Wherever the insidious mischief of Plymouthism is felt, whether 
in England or Ireland, we commend this seasonable and power- 
ful pamphlet as an effectual antidote. " — Methodist Recorder. 

* ' It has told upon the New Gospel in this neighbourhood like 
a shot from a mortar." — V. W., Esq. 

" I have long wished that some public notice would be taken 
of the rank antinomianism which has become so popular in our 
day, and am right glad to see this powerful pamphlet." — Rev. 
John Nelson. 

" I greatly like the spirit, point, plan, distinctive character, 
and conclusiveness of this Tract. " — Rev. Daniel Macafee. 

' ' A well timed, and an exceedingly able pamphlet. It is quite 
an expose of the principles of the advocates of the New Gospel, 
and one which no sophistry will enable them to answer." — Rev. 
Wallace M' 'Mullen. 

' ' Admirable alike for its strength of thought, force of logic, 
simplicity and pungency of style, and Christian temper." — Rev. 
David Hay, Manchester. 



NOTICES. 



' ' A thorough, refutation of the pestilent errors of the ' New 
Gospel ; ' and a seasonable, candid, logical, scriptural, and 
triumphant defence of the grand old Gospel. "—.Rev. George T. 
Perks, M.A. 

' ' An admirable and masterly Tract. " — Rev. J as. H. Rigg, D. D. 

" From the title (which is admirable and telling), to the last 
line, it is a sound, trenchant exposure of the miserable and 
stupid errors and delusions of Plyniouthism. I particularly 
admire the logical demolition of the new theory of assurance, and 
the quiet undercurrent of sarcasm, irony, and honest scorn which 
pervades the pamphlet ; and shall look with some interest for 
the promised sequel on the 'new Gospel.' " Esq., M.B. 

"A concise and effective exposure of the theological vagaries 
originating in Plymouthism. A lengthened examination of the 
subjects criticised in the pamphlet would be out of place in a 
newspaper ; but the questions discussed by Mr. Crook are be- 
coming so much the religious questions of the day, that a general 
reference to them is a duty which we think we shall best fulfil 
by recommending the perusal of this ' Tract for the Times.' " — 
St Leonard's Standard. ■ 

" This able pamphlet is written to warn the ignorant and 
unwary against the preaching of certain young laymen, profess- 
ing at present to teach the Gospel to the clergy as well as to the 
general public of Sligo, Ballina, Boyle, &c, &c, on a new prin- 
ciple, which at all events displays one quality claimed for it by 
its advocates — that of great simplicity. The tract bears on its 
titlepage the appropriate text, ' But there be some that trouble 
you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, 
or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than 
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.' — 
Galatians i. 7, 8. The writer holds an important position in 
the useful and. much respected sect of the Wesleyan Metho- 
dists, and upon the whole we think the tract, coming from 
such a source, more likely to be of service, than had it emanated 

from the pen of an Established Church minister. ■ 

* * •* * * * * 

We are glad to see that Mr. Crook intends shortly to return 
to this subject, and that he is preparing for publication another 
pamphlet entitled — ' Wheat or Chaff : or New Gospel views of 
the believer's relation to the Law, to Sin, the 'resurrection life,' 
Oneness with Christ, Final Perseverance, &c, tested by Scrip- 
ture and common sense.' We wish him God-speed in his efforts 
to uphold the cause of the true religion of Christ against these 
false teachers of 'strange doctrines.' It is very much to the 
credit of the Wesley an Methodists that when some ministers of 
the Established and Presbyterian Churches have so far forgot 
the doctrines they are bound to preach as to countenance and 
support those unscriptural lay-preachers, they have as a body 
held back and remained steadfast to the ' form of sound words, ' 
given them in the Bible." — Sligo Independent. 



NOTICES. 



V. 

Jftekttir atttr % €mtmm£ d %mmtmx 

Chapters on the palatines : philip embury and Barbara 
heck ; and other irish emigrants, who instrumentality" 
laid the foundation of the methodist church in the 
united states of america, canada, and eastern british 
america. with an appendix. 1866. 

THIRD THOUSAND. 

Crown 8vo, Cloth, with Seven Engravings, Price 4s., Gilt, 
4s. 6d. — Embury's Farewell when leaving Limerick; The 
Sums of his House at Ballingran ; His House at New York, in 
which his first Sermon in America was preached; The "Rig- 
ging Loft," Old John Street Chapel, " The Cradle of Ameri- 
can Methodism ; " The House in which Strawbridge died, and 
a "Visit to his Grave. 

''Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful hough by a well: whose 
branches run over the wall : the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot 
at him, and hated him : but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his 
hands were made strong by the hands of the mightv God of Jacob."— Gen. 
xlix. 22-24. 



" This is a book of fascinating power, which will be read with 
the deepest interest by thousands on both sides of the Atlantic. 
It is written with the author's characteristic spirit and vigour, 
and has all over it the glow of a noble and beautiful enthusiasm. 
.... We had some conception of the contributions that had 
been made from the vigorous and fruitful stock of Irish Methodism 
to the Methodism of the New World ; but we must confess that, 
until reading the historical disclosures brought to light in this 
volume, we had no adequate notion of the immense extent of 
indebtedness under which American Methodism from the be- 
ginning until now has been placed to Ireland We cor- 
dially concur in the judgment of Mr. Crook, that if Irish 
Methodism had been able to retain all the sons and daughters 
that have been reared up in the last hundred years, within her 
bosom, she would have presented, in proportion to the popula- 
tion, the most numerous and powerful outgrowth of Methodism 

in the United Kingdom Mr. Crook writes with the head 

and heart of an outspoken Protestant : he is a well read man, 
and knows thoroughly the dogmas of Popery ; but he is also a 
close and keen observer. He has had an opportunity of marking 
the influence of Romanism on the intellect, the moral nature, 
the domestic life, the social institutions, and the commercial 
enterprise of his country : and we are not surprised at the 
scathing and trenchant terms in which he denounces ' the 



NOTICES. 



mystery of iniquity. ' . . . . We heartily recommend the book 
to all our readers. We have read it with admiration and wonder : 
it is full of incident and story, written in a sparkling, glowing 
style, that rivets and fascinates the attention." — Methodist 
Recorder. 

" It is impossible to form a just estimate #f the wide-spread 
influence which Irish Methodism has exerted, unless we direct 
special attention to the United States of America. Emigrants 
from Ireland were the first Methodists who landed on that vast 
territory ; the first Methodist sermon there preached was by one 
of them ; the first Methodist Chapel was erected mainly by their 
untiring efforts ; and the first ' Itinerant preacher ' was Robert 
Williams, who was in full connexion with the Irish Conference. 
These and many other deeply interesting facts, illustrating the 
connexion between Irish and American Methodism, are detailed 
in the volume before us, with a fulness and accuracy which leave 
nothing to be desired. With painstaking industry Mr. Crook 
has made diligent search in every available quarter for even the 
minutest scraps of information which could in any way illustrate 
his theme ; and his pages, all aglow with life and feeling, at 
once command our confidence as historical records, instruct 
the mind by the valuable information which they convey, and 
deeply interest the heart by describing the wonderful work which 
God has wrought in the world by the instrumentality of the 
Church to Avhich it is our high honour to belong." — Wesley an 
Methodist Magazine. 

" It is a fact of special interest that Irishmen have been the 
most prominent agents in the early career of American Metho- 
dism. An Irishman, Philip Embury, from Ballingran, near 
Limerick, was the first Methodist local preacher in America. 
He preached the first sermon, and he organised the first class. 
The first Methodist congregation consisted of five Irish emi- 
grants — Philip Embury and his wife, Paul Heck and Barbara 
his wife, John Lawrence, and Betty, a black servant. That 
congregation of five has grown up to near eight millions in 
America alone. The first Itinerant preacher was also an Irish- 
man — namely, Robert Williams. The first preacher in Canada 
was also an Irishman, George Neal ; and soon after came James 
M'Carty, another Irishman, who died as a martyr in the cause, 
being cruelly murdered by savage persecutors for his zeal and 
fidelity in proclaiming the truth of God. From that day to this, 
Irishmen have been prominent in diffusing and maintaining the 
work of God on the American continent. It is a common thing 
to depreciate Methodism in Ireland as unproductive. Yet, for 
the period of a hundred years, there has been a constant stream 
of Irish emigrants to America and Canada, who, on their arrival 
there, have laboured as zealous members, class-leaders, and 
preachers, consecrating their time and talents to the diffusion of 
Methodism. It is affirmed, on good authority, that not less than 



NOTICES. 



70,000 members of Methodist churches have emigrated from 
Ireland to America. And there, they and their pious descend- 
ants have been among the most efficient agents in the great 
work of God. These facts, and many others of a highly interest- 
ing character, in reference to the connection which Irish. Metho- 
dists have had with the origin, progress, and triumphs of 
Methodism in the United States and. Canada, are set forth in 
this volume. Mr. Crook has displayed great industry in search- 
ing out and authenticating his facts, in correcting the minor 
errors of his predecessors, and producing a very instructive, 
lively, and edifying volume, the existence of which seems essen- 
tial to an accurate and complete history of Methodism. .... 
We heartily thank Mr. Crook for this timely and excellent 
work. We are glad to find a second edition is already called 
for, and we wish for it a very extensive circulation." — Methodist 
Neio Connexion Magazine. 

" A mere summary of Mr. Crook's volume will suffice to shew 
what toil, skill, and patience were needed to comprise such a 
mass of details within so small a space, and present in a little 
over 250 pages, a worthy memorial of Ireland's place in con- 
nexion with the origin of American Methodism But the 

headings of the various chapters only barely reveal the wealth 
of incidents respecting the fugitive Palatines ; the bold Robert 
Swindells ; the life and death of Thomas Walsh ; the debark- 
ation of Embury and his party ; John Wesley's visits to Ire- 
land ; the slander which has gained such currency concerning 
Embury's being found playing at cards ; the professional services 
of Mrs. Heck as architect of John Street Church ; the germ of 
' the Book Concern ;' the visit of Dr. M'Clintock to his family 
homestead in Tyrone ; Bishop Janes's speech on the debt of 
American Methodism to Ireland, and the special efforts which 
are being made for the conversion of Irish Romanists in Eng- 
land and America. Aught of its class more comprehensive in 
detail, or spirit-stirring and suggestive in narration, we have 
seldom read. We seem in this book, and in the movement with 
which it is connected, to trace the mystic waters as they flow 
from ' under the threshold of the house, ' deepening and widen- 
ing in their course, and skirted with very many trees on the 
one side and on the other." — Watchman. 

" This book bids fair to be well received by the people of this 
country, and more especially by the great community of Wes- 

leyan Methodism in its various branches Its range is 

very wide, its incidents all but innumerable, and its characters 
— ministerial characters, we mean, men to whose life, labours, 
and history a very high importance attaches — are carefully de- 
lineated. It opens with the Palatines in Ireland, presenting a 
remarkably captivating chapter, which is followed by another on 
the origin and progress of Methodism amongst the Palatines. 
Here Mr. Wesley stands forth in his pristine glory, surrounded 



NOTICES. 



by those remarkable men whom God was pleased to raise up for 
his comfort and assistance, and amongst these not the least 
noticeable is the sketch of Thomas Walsh, one of the most 
remarkable men that ever graced the rule of Methodism in the 
Emerald Isle. The second chapter is a remarkably luminous 
one, worthy to be set forth in a separate form, as a tract for dis- 
tribution in Ireland. We are next introduced to Philip Embury 
and Mrs. Heck. Here we have the history of the first stage of 
Methodism in the New World. While the chapter is brief, yet 
there is much about it that will be novel to the mass of British 
readers. The account of this devoted people's arrival in the 
city of New York, then a comparatively small place, is full of 
interest — strikingly illustrative of the power of zeal on behalf of 
the cause of God, and the ingenuity with which devoted people 
will promote their sacred object. With no society to support 
him, few friends to encourage him, many difficulties to encounter, 
yet Mr. Embury set to work, and succeeded to plant the tree of 
Methodism in the New World — a tree which has brought forth 
fruit that has administered health, life, and felicity to millions, 
and whose fruitfulness bids fair to continue for ages to come. 
.... But we may not enlarge. Suffice it to say that we have 
a series of chapters, all of a similar character, presenting bio- 
graphical sketches of men great in their sphere, and singularly 
useful in their day and generation. The Irish element enters 
largely into these labours, and the result conclusively proves 
that the Irish character, detached from the thraldom of Popery, 
and the chains of the priesthood, is admirably adapted to works 
of godly enterprise. This book is not to be confounded with 
ordinary publications on Methodism." — Rev. Dr. Campbell, in 
British Standard. 

1 1 A delightful book — instructive in its facts, captivating in 
its style, rich in experience, and holy in its purpose. " — Wesleyan 
Times. 



London : — Hamilton, Adams & Co. , Paternoster Row. 
Wesleyan Conference Office. 
Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row. 
Dublin : — Richard Yoakley, 72, Grafton Street. 




ID 38. 8. 



MARCUS WARD & CO., PRINTERS, BELFAST AND DUBLIN. 





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